Fondo CAL - Case Romane

The Fondo CAL Roman houses in Aquileia preserve two residential complexes, including a fourth-century apsed hall with a Good Shepherd mosaic and a home with black-and-white pavements.

Why it matters

The mosaics remain in their architectural setting, preserving the relationship between floors and rooms. In the eastern domus, a Good Shepherd sits among geometric fields, animals and figures. Scholars have interpreted the apsed room as a reception hall in a private residence rather than as an early Christian oratory. The adjoining house preserves another phase of Aquileia's domestic history.

What to notice

The eastern hall's mosaic centers on the Good Shepherd within a design of rhombuses, squares and octagons containing animals and human figures. The images reflect fourth-century artistic vocabulary. The western house, known for its black-and-white geometric floors, is arranged around a peristyle. Earlier structures with a different orientation survive beneath its Augustan-period phase.

Context and history

The residential quarter developed outside Aquileia's early Republican perimeter along an ancient road. From the first through the fourth and fifth centuries AD, the houses were repeatedly modified and combined. The Fondo CAL and neighbouring Beneficio Rizzi properties were acquired by the state in the 1950s. Excavation and conservation left the mosaics in situ, preserving their connection to the surrounding architecture.