Church Built by Roman Emperor Justinian I Excavated in Aquileia, Italy

In the quiet and peaceful village of Aquileia, in northern Italy near the Adriatic Sea coast, archaeologists from the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) found something remarkable and unexpected. While performing excavations just to the west of the town, near an ancient road that once led to Rome and Milan, they unearthed the ruins of an early Christian basilica, which they knew immediately was more than 1,000 years old.

After decades of excavations in and around Aquileia, this is the first large-scale structure that has been discovered. Based on its architectural style, the ÖAW archaeologists have dated the church to the Byzantine period, and specifically to the reign of the celebrated emperor Justinian I, who ruled the Byzantine Empire from 527 to 565. As a part of his efforts to resurrect the glory days of the old Roman Empire, Justinian launched an ambitious monumental building campaign in the mid-550s, which included the construction of new and often spectacular Christian churches.

“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 program,” archaeologist Stefan Groh explained in an Austrian Academy of Sciences press release.

In actuality, the newly discovered church predated Justinian’s reign to some extent. The archaeologists determined that the foundation of the structure was constructed in the fourth century, before being expanded later.

“The basilica was probably extended into an imposing building with three apses in the first half of the 6th century under Emperor Justinian I,” Groh said. “The architecture shows striking parallels to the Eastern Roman Empire, as can be found in Egypt, Turkey and the Balkans.

The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall of Aquileia

Betw While Aquileia is an unassuming village today, 1,500 years ago it enjoyed a completely different status. With a population that peaked at over 100,000, it was one of the most prominent Italian cities in the Roman and Byzantine empires. Founded as a military encampment in 181 BC, it was strategically located near the seacoast, and along a road that led to the province of Noricum in modern-day Austria.

Aerial view of the modern village of Aquileia, Italy, the site of a legendary Roman city. (Janos Korom/CC BY-SA 2.0).

When the original Roman Empire imploded and then collapsed in the fifth century, splitting into eastern and western halves, Aquileia was one of the cities that suffered as a result of the loss of the Empire’s protection. The city was utterly destroyed by the infamous Attila the Hun and his men in 452, which was actually Attila’s first major success as a conqueror of Roman Empire lands.

As the Byzantine Empire emerged in the old Roman territory to the east, centered in its capital city of Constantinople, the lands of Italy fell under the control of the Ostrogoths, a Germanic people from the west. They formed an uneasy alliance with the Byzantines, but in 540 Justinian I sent his forces into Italy as a part of his efforts to gain full control over the lands surrounding Rome. It was during this period when the Arian Goths were driven out of the area around Aquileia, after which Justinian would have been able to begin constructing the city´s new basilica, which would be his gift to the people.

The newly discovered basilica would have been built to help restore the Catholic faith in an area that had fallen under the influence of Christian heretics. But at the same time, it also would have served as a symbol of the reconquest of Upper Italy by Justinian I. The building would have faced southeast toward Constantinople and Jerusalem when it was still standing, announcing its connection to the centers of Byzantine power and the Christian religion respectively.

Ultimately the emperor’s efforts to secure control of the western Roman lands proved to be in vain, and his enemies the Lombards seized control of Aquileia around the year 560. The city never came close to regaining the wealth and influence it enjoyed before it was sacked by Attila, yet it managed to survive despite the challenges it faced and continues to exist to this day (although with just 3,000 inhabitants).

The Nexus of Politics and Religion in the Ancient Roman World Revealed

Now recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site, Aquileia holds the distinction of being the last of the great Roman cities that has yet to be fully excavated. As such it still has the capacity to produce the occasional surprise, as the discovery of the new basilica so clearly demonstrates.

Interestingly, perhaps the most famous building in the city is another basilica that was first erected in the fourth century. This is the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, which functions at the village’s primary Catholic church. The present facade of this building was actually constructed in the 11th century, so it escaped destruction at the hands of the invaders who besieged Aquileia and likely damaged its sister basilica in the latter half of the sixth century.

Outer façade of the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, a church in Aquileia, Italy constructed in the fourth and 11th centuries. (Giovanni Dall´Orto).

Now that this long-lost religious structure has been excavated, archaeologists have a better understanding of how religion and politics intersected in ancient Italy and the surrounding area.

‘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 sixth century AD with a similar building plan to the new basilica of Aquileia,” Stefan Groh noted, referencing a once Byzantine-controlled village located around 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of the newly unearthed church.

While Justinian I’s efforts to reestablish the old Roman Empire under Byzantine authority proved futile, the results of his attempt have left a lasting legacy in the archaeological record at Aquileia, at the site of what was once one of the Roman Empire’s most prosperous cities.

Top image: Mosaic of Emperor Justinian I and his retinue, from the Church of Sa Vitale in Ravenna, Italy.

Source: Carole Raddato/CC BY-SA 2.0.

By Nathan Falde