UBVRI CCD PHOTOMETRY OF THE OLD OPEN CLUSTER NGC-6253

We present UBVRI photometry for the old open cluster NGC 6253. From co mparison of the observed colour-magnitude diagrams with simulations ba sed on stellar evolutionary models we derive in a self-consistent way the reddening, the distance and the age of the cluster: E (B - V) = 0. 23-0.32, (m - M)(0) = 10.9 +/- 0.1, with metallicity approximately dou ble the solar value and age similar or equal to 3 Gyr. The cluster has a binary sequence, discernible even through the field contamination, suggesting that about 1/3 of the cluster members belong to binary, or multiple, systems.