| Municipality of Aquileia
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Pop.: 3,330
Area: 36,45 sq. km, 5 m a.s.l.
Neighbourhoods: Belvedere
Town Hall: P. Garibaldi, 7 - 33051 Aquileia
Phone.: 0431.91087 Fax:
www.comune.aquileia.ud.it
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plan. The Good Shepherd (the symbol of
divine forgiveness), the Winged Victory
(probably symbolizing the defeat of death by
the coming of Christ); the Fishing Scenes
(symbolizing the spreading of Christianity
for the salvation of men-fish); the Jonah's
Episodes (representing the path of conversion
leading to a new catechumenal life).
Archaeological excavations in Aquileia
received a boost in the 1930s thanks to the
Fascist exaltation of the Roman spirit and to
the purpose of giving new light to Aquileia,
the "redeemed city" which had just been
returned to Italy. Such exaltation led to the
excavation works in the forum (dating to the
2nd, 3rd and 5th centuries) and of the river
port (dating instead to the 1st, 3rd and 5th
centuries). The forum, a wide square with a
remarkable colonnade supporting a covered
promenade (56 x 139 m), was the scene where
the city public and political life took place
in an imposing, though well-equipped and
functional space whose elements were
reminiscent of Rome's greatness (eagles,
putti, plinths with Medusa heads and Jupiter
Ammon). It was here that the notable met
with merchants coming from all over
the Mediterranean with their
supplies of food, spices, wood,
marble, precious stones, etc.,
to satisfy the demand of
the Danube merchants
who, in turn, thanks to the
efficient Roman road
network, sold here their
metals, leather and amber.
The River Natisone-Torre,
with its 48 m of width,
offered room enough for
the port to operate and
ships to sail up the river
easily for about ten
kilometres. The wharfs of
strong Istria stone were
equipped with two loading
levels, moorings, ramps
and easy access ways to the city centre. It is
commonly thought that the area where in the
Middle Ages an important abbey of
Benedictine nuns was built, was in Roman
times occupied by a district of Oriental
people: this seems to be supported by certain
names on the mosaic inscriptions in the
Basilica of Monastero (4th, 5th and 6th
centuries), which, completely incorporated in
an 18th-century farm warehouse, was
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found
and brought to light in the 1950s.
Restructured, the warehouse became the
Museo Paleocristiano: what makes this
Early Christian Museum spectacular is
the unusual possibility of viewing the
whole mosaic floors and figurative
parts (peacock and lambs grazing on
vine-shoots) of the Basilica of
Beligna from the height of two large
balconies. Remarkable is also the
lapidary collection of Christian
epigraphs, rich in symbols and witnessing
the existence of affections that go well
beyond death, still capable of moving the
visitors' feelings.
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These epigraphs no longer
boast the Roman monumentality neither of
the Great Mausoleum (1st cent. AD), for
example, nor of the five burial grounds found
in the suburb west of the city (Sepolcreto,
1st-4th cent. AD). In such cases, the
necropolises, running along the city roads,
were an integral part of the urban plan and
clients, being well aware of this, translated
their will of socio-economic self-assertiveness
in their tombs. Unfortunately, we have at
present deeper knowledge of the funeral
rituals than of the living habits of the times,
since the systematic pillaging Aquileia
suffered in the centuries has mostly
jeopardized the conservation of higher
buildings; however, the recovery of
dozens and dozens of mosaic
floor from the Republican Age
at the end of the Empire
makes amends,
sometimes extraordinary
amends, for that loss. In
the excavations of the
CAL and Cossar Fields
private houses are often
superimposed on remains
of roads and other town
planning elements or
some probably private
oratories where the
figures of mosaic floors
are often reminiscent
of those in the Basilica
Patriarcale.
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| BASSA FRIULANA
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The name "Bassa"
identifies the Friuli plains
extending towards the Adriatic,
beginning more or less from the so-called
Stradalta (just a bit south
of the present-day
Strada
Napoleonica),
namely below the line of
resurgences from which
rivers or streams or
simply natural springs
often originate,
contributing to shaping the...go
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