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.