Parco Archeologico di Muggia Vecchia

Above Muggia, on a hillside of oaks and downy oaks, lies the town's predecessor: a fortified medieval borgo gradually abandoned in the later Middle Ages and now an open-air archaeological park. Its Romanesque basilica survives among house foundations, walls and gates, with frescoes inside and views towards Trieste.

Why it matters

The hill preserves traces of Iron Age occupation and a fortified medieval settlement. Its later abandonment was gradual: after the destruction of 1353, some houses were repaired before residents increasingly moved to the coast, where a settlement already existed. The surviving walls, house foundations, lanes, gates and basilica reveal the form of the old hilltop borgo.

The settlement remains in place, while artefacts recovered there are held in the Civico Museo Archeologico. The archaeological park includes remains of dwellings, lanes, gates and the church.

What to notice

The Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta is the only building of the medieval settlement still standing in use. Romanesque in origin and built of local sandstone, it houses pre-Romanesque carved stone panels from the eighth and ninth centuries and wall paintings dating from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. The Saint Christopher image reflects the cult that grew after the borgo's destruction in 1353. The left nave's Santo Crocifisso altar reuses a Roman funerary stele.

Foundations of small sandstone houses survive beside the enclosure walls; finds identify a two-storey dwelling with an external masonry staircase as a possible blacksmith's workshop. Two gates and stretches of the medieval circuit remain visible.

The church square overlooks the Vallone di Muggia and the city of Trieste.

Context and history

In 931, kings Ugo and Lotario donated the Castellum Mugla to the Patriarch of Aquileia, a record of the hill's medieval history. Through the high Middle Ages the borgo organised itself as a commune; in 1353, during the war between the Patriarchs of Aquileia and the Counts of Gorizia, troops of Trieste destroyed the settlement.

The hilltop settlement was partially reoccupied after 1353, but population shifted progressively toward the existing coastal settlement. Venetian rule from 1420 strengthened the attractions of life by the harbour. The basilica retained its religious role while the surrounding houses fell into ruin; later excavation and conservation established the archaeological park.