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| Concordia Sagittaria – Old Town Centre and Archaeological Museum |
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| Trichora and exhibits at Concordia |
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Concordia was an important Roman colony, Iulia Concordia, founded in 42 a.C. at the crossroads of the via Annia with the via Postumia; particularly flourishing in the first two centuries of the Empire, in the late antique period it became the site of a factory producing arrows (sagittae, hence the name applied to it in the nineteenth century at the time of the first excavations) and, with Aquileia, rampart of the eastern border. Elected a bishop’s see in 389, it continued to prosper until the arrival of the Longobards, which coincided with its final decline. It was used as a source of building materials ever since ancient times: this is demonstrated by the abundance of architectural remains reused to build the early Christian church.
The first regular excavations were carried out at the end of the nineteenth century, bringing to light important monuments of the colony: the bridge and the theatre, still visible today, the forum situated at the crossroads between the cardus and the decumanus maximus, the presumed arrow factory. Other important finds are those in via dei Pozzi Romani and a large burial ground on the left of the Lemene, composed of about 260 sarcophagi of the late antique period; as it was impossible to preserve the inscriptions of the sarcophagi on the site, they were removed and taken to the Museo Nazionale Concordiese.
The most important remains are in the Piazza of the Cathedral of Santo Stefano, below and next to the church. This is a complex of monuments, brought to light between 1950 and 1970, which comprises two pagan burial sites, each made up of three niches. In front of them is one of the oldest Christian monuments in the Veneto, a Trichora, that is a building with three apses, originally erected in the middle of the fourth century AD as a monumental tomb to pay tribute to the relics of martyrs; later, with the addition of an avant-corps with a nave and two aisles, it became a small basilica with a courtyard in front and a sepulchral area with inscribed and uninscribed sarcophagi alongside it.
On the northern side of the Trichora, of which it uses a part, and of its courtyard is a large Basilica. The church was used until the second half of the sixth century AD, with various alterations especially in the area of the presbytery and in the floor; it was destroyed by a fire and its ruins were covered by about 2 metres of sand brought there by various floods. Two centuries later a smaller church was built, with three apses that closed the perimeter on the eastern side. The remains of the foundations of two apses can now be seen, sunk in the pack of alluvial soil.
In recent years the excavations have been resumed in the square in front of the church and the early Christian complex, bringing to light a fair sized piece of Roman road with trachyte slabs that still bear the ruts left by passing carts; on the road that left the town from the eastern gate it is possible to identify the road that linked Concordia to the Via Annia. To the south of it are the remains of Roman warehouses that served the town, a large building composed of parallel structures divided into environments paved first with wooden boards, then with cubes of terracotta. In a ditch that ran along the south-western side of the warehouses flowed the great sewer, originally covered with a vault, which passed under the boundary walls as it left the town.
Address: Via I Maggio, 121 - Concordia Sagittaria
Tel. 0039 0421 270360 - Fax 0039 0421 275364
How to get there: from Venice motorway A4, leave by the Portogruaro exit, S.S. 14 follow the indication "Concordia Sagittaria". Or from Venice S.S. 14 (towards Latisana - Trieste), follow the indication "Concordia Sagittaria". Railway line, Venice - Trieste , get off at Portogruaro and continue by public transport or taxi. ATVO bus service Portogruaro - Caorle.
Opening hours: winter 9.30 - 12.00, 15.30 - 18.00; summer 9.30 - 12.00; 16.00 - 18.30. Closed: Mondays
Free admission. Possibility of guided visits.
This small Museum, set out with modern simplicity, cooperates with the nineteenth-century one at Portogruaro, which has no more exhibition space for recent discoveries, and completes it, because it contains Roman monuments which integrate the types represented in the older museum, and monuments of the early Christian and Medieval periods, from the excavations of the basilicas, unique for their artistic and documentary value.
At present the Museum is housed in the ground-floor rooms of the Municipal Library and exhibits items found during the excavations in the early Christian complex at Concordia and those which are still being brought to light in the urban area or in the territory during farming or building activities. The first room contains materials from the necropolese of Concordia, the second has been devoted to exhibits from the residential area which are esential for the reconstruction of life in the old town (amphoras, water pipes, etc:); the third room contains items found during excavations of the early Christian complex in the Cathedral square.
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