Things to See in Aquileia | 2 Monuments & Landmarks

All the monuments in Aquileia

The landmarks and masterpieces worth planning a day around.

Basilica of Aquileia, Italy

Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta di AquileiaBasilica of AquileiaFourth-century mosaic floor, Good Shepherd, ninth-century crypt frescoes, 73 m bell tower, patriarchal seatThe Basilica of Aquileia grew from an early Christian community that was already worshiping here immediately after 313, and it preserves the mosaic floor of the Theodorian church of the early fourth century, about 700 square meters of scenes, from the Good Shepherd to fishermen, that is the largest early Christian mosaic floor of the Western world. The building you see is mainly eleventh century and later, Romanesque and Gothic, with a 73-meter bell tower, and beneath the altar area a ninth-century crypt with frescoes. It is a distinct religious component within the wider UNESCO property Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia, inscribed in 1998, and not a separately inscribed site. Glass walkways let you look down onto the older floor.Plan the visit

Area Archeologica di AquileiaArchaeological Area of AquileiaRoman river port, forum colonnade, once a major imperial city, mostly unexcavated beneath the townRome founded Aquileia in 181 BCE on the Natissa river, and it grew into one of the empire's largest cities, a trading hub linking the Mediterranean to central Europe, before Attila's Huns destroyed it in 452. The excavated area preserves stretches of the forum colonnade, a Roman basilica, late-antique warehouses (horrea), baths, residential complexes and the remains of the river port that made the city rich, while most of ancient Aquileia is thought to still lie unexcavated beneath the fields and the modern town. It forms part of a wider UNESCO listing alongside the separately managed Patriarchal Basilica, whose floor mosaics are the largest of their kind anywhere in the West.

The Aquileia guide

More within reach

Monuments a day trip away, elsewhere in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

More in Friuli-Venezia Giulia