Museo Paleocristiano

The Early Christian Museum in Aquileia encloses the surviving walls and mosaic floor of a fourth-century basilica. On the ground floor, donor medallions in Latin and Greek remain in situ. Upstairs, panels from the late fourth-century basilica of Beligna are displayed, while the second floor preserves early Christian inscriptions.

Why it matters

The museum presents evidence of Aquileia’s early Christian community and its later episcopal centre. A basilica was discovered beneath a Benedictine monastery in 1895, systematically excavated in the 1950s and incorporated into the museum, which opened in 1961. Its inscriptions and mosaics document the Christian community in Aquileia during the fourth and fifth centuries.

What to notice

The basilica hall measures about 58 by 19 metres and has a polygonal apse. It began as a single nave and was divided into three around the end of the fifth century. The mosaic floor has geometric patterns and medallions containing donors’ names in Latin and Greek; some names may point to eastern, perhaps Syrian, origins. The upper floor displays panels from the late fourth-century basilica of Beligna, with vine tendrils, twelve lambs representing the Apostles and a peacock, an ancient symbol of immortality. The second floor contains funerary inscriptions with recurring images including the praying figure, amphora, palm, lamb and Chi-Rho.

Context and history

The site belonged to a Benedictine nunnery documented in 1036 and suppressed in 1782 under Joseph II. Archaeological work in the 1950s exposed the basilica’s walls and mosaic floor. In 1961 the museum opened around the remains, incorporating their perimeter walls into the building. The Beligna panels were transferred from a separate basilica near Aquileia; their exact findspot history is not established by the museum’s published account.