The size of Aquileia today is in inverse proportion to its great historical significance: today's small town with 3,000 inhabitants in a barren landscape, around ten kilometres from the lagoon of Grado on the Gulf of Trieste, was an economically important city of the Roman Empire in ancient times. Founded in 181 BC as a Roman military colony, it was strategically located at the end of the Amber Road and on the way to the province of Noricum, today's Austria.
Researchers from the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have now discovered a previously unknown early Christian basilica in Aquileia. The monumental Byzantine-style church sheds new light on the religious development and geopolitical significance of the city. ‘The city was fortified under Emperor Justinian I with a mighty zigzag wall, for which there are the best comparisons in Thessaloniki. The discovery of the new basilica probably indicates a larger Byzantine building programme,’ says archaeologist Stefan Groh form the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Emperor Justinian I reigned as Roman emperor from 521 to 527.
Symbol of a geopolitical era
The archeologists carried out geophysical measurements and geoarchaeological drilling in an area to the west of Aquileia, near the Via Annia, an important trade route that connected the city with Milan and Rome. These led to the discovery of a 4th century church building, which was expanded over time into a three-aisled transept basilica.
‘This basilica is the first newly discovered large building in decades of intensive archaeological research in Aquileia,’ says Stefan Groh. The basilica was probably extended into an imposing building with three apses in the first half of the 6th century under Emperor Justinian I. The architecture shows striking parallels to the Eastern Roman Empire, as can be found in Egypt, Turkey and the Balkans.
Architecture as a sign of power and culture
‘Transept basilicas with apses can be found in the Eastern Roman Empire from Egypt to the Middle East, such as in Bethlehem, the Lycian coast, south-west Turkey and the Balkan region in Durrës, Albania, and now also as far as the Upper Adriatic,’ explains Groh. The basilica is probably not only a religious building, but also a sign of the reconquest of Upper Italy by Justinian I. The building, which faces south-east towards Constantinople and Jerusalem, is interpreted as a reaction to the expulsion of the Arian Goths.
The research, which was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and carried out in cooperation with the Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio del Friuli Venezia Giulia, provides an insight into the historical urban development of Aquileia and its connection to Byzantine building structures. ‘The extent to which these ancient ‘geopolitical’ building measures even radiated into our region can be seen from the bishop's church of Teurnia in the village of St. Peter in Holz, Austria, which was adapted in the 6th century AD with a similar building plan to the new basilica of Aquileia,’ emphasises archaeologist Stefan Groh.
