Basilichetta Funeraria

Beneath Palazzo Delli Ponti in Taranto lies a small early Christian funerary basilica. Its fifth-century burial chamber contains ten arcosolium tombs and eight trench graves around the traces of an apse, preserving evidence of the city's late-antique Christian community.

Why it matters

The hypogeum combines a burial place with the remains of a sacred building. Archaeologists found traces of at least two painted phases in the apse, sections of flooring and an altar base made from a reused column drum. The tombs and architectural remains offer a rare view of funerary and religious practice in late-antique Taranto.

What to notice

The chamber contains both arcosolia—arched recesses cut into the walls for burials—and simpler graves set into the floor. The arrangement suggests a family group, probably Christian, used the space until around the mid-sixth century. A lead or terracotta tube associated with the refrigerium rite, in which food and drink were shared in remembrance of the dead, was recovered from the chamber. Nearby finds include ceramics marked with Christian symbols; a mid-sixth-century African Red Slip bowl bears a jewelled cross flanked by three doves.

Context and history

The burial chamber was uncovered during renovation work at Palazzo Delli Ponti, an eighteenth-century palace formed by joining older houses, including Palazzo dell'Antoglietta and Palazzo De Gaeta. A small church was built above the hypogeum in the tenth or eleventh century. The funerary building was later abandoned and destroyed between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Its original dedication remains unknown.