Area archeologica di Santa Maria in Portuno

In open country near the Cesano River, Santa Maria in Portuno preserves the remains of a church and earlier Roman settlement. The site includes an early Christian apse and crypt, a medieval monastic phase and the remains of an eighteenth-century rebuilding.

Why it matters

Santa Maria in Portuno is among the oldest religious sites in the Corinaldo area. Archaeological work around the church has revealed Roman industrial activity near a crossing of the Cesano, followed by early Christian worship and a monastery. The site's successive layers document the changing use of the river landscape long before the hilltop borgo took its present form.

What to notice

The surviving single nave includes eighteenth-century alterations, while the apse and crypt preserve the early church's form. The crypt and foundations of earlier buildings are part of the archaeological area. The church contains a canvas by Claudio Ridolfi, ex-votos and Roman architectural elements reused in its masonry. Excavations revealed kilns for bricks and ceramics associated with activity near the river crossing. Panels explain the site's archaeological phases.

Context and history

The oldest written reference is a 1090 charter from Fonte Avellana naming “S. Marie que dicitur in Portuno.” By 1224, the dedication had shifted to Madonna de Plano, a name retained by the locality. The church's earlier monastic phase is described as a monasterium. In the eighteenth century, the Collegio Germanico-Ungarico in Rome sponsored restoration, adding the bell tower and rebuilding the façade. Archaeological work by the University of Bologna and the Soprintendenza uncovered the crypt, successive building foundations and the Roman kiln area.