An amazing place I’d never heard of
Allow me to travel-influence you
To think, while planning this trip, I briefly worried that I wouldn’t see enough mosaics. Almost four weeks in, I have seen so many mosaics, with more surely to come in our remaining six days. But I can’t imagine any will top those in Aquileia, a place I’d never heard of before we decided to visit on the recommendation of our friend in Croatia.
Today Aquileia is a small town in northeastern Italy. But once it was a sprawling colony of Rome, first a border city abutting the barbarian lands to the north and then, as the empire expanded into those barbarian lands, a crucial river port and trading hub connecting Central Europe with the Adriatic Sea. The discrepancy between Aquileia’s ancient and present-day footprints means that the entire place is basically an archaeological site. In the backyard of the town’s museum, there are so many inscriptions, sculptures, and gravestones lining the walkways and walls that one can’t help but think the that archaeologists ran out of places to put them.
Inside the museum was my favorite mosaic:
If you look closely, especially at the bottom, you can see this is supposed to be an unswept floor after a feast—the fish heads, the bones, the olive pits. You can also see a squid, which the artists of Aquileia were apparently obsessed with.
These are from the ancient floor of the Patriarchal Basilica, decorated in the fourth century AD. (Pardon the weird angles and light; I was leaning over barriers to get as close as I could.) I absolutely love these deranged collections of sea creatures. Apparently the fishing boat in the last one is supposed to represent Christ sweeping up souls in a net.
And speaking of Christian symbols that didn’t stand the test of time, here is a rooster (Jesus) facing off against a turtle (the forces of evil). Sure!
At another point in the church, which was unfortunately impossible to take a picture of, there was a lobster in a tree. But also! Portraits of real people, which always get me.
And for a non-mosaic, here’s the ruins of the Roman forum, right on the side of Aquileia’s main road.
Now you’ve heard of Aquileia! The next time you need to travel between Italy and Croatia, don’t miss it.