Carabinieri TPC
The remains of Vitruvius’ basilica were discovered in 2023
The official announcement, made this Monday, leaves no room for doubt: the architectural remains unearthed in 2023 in the urban heart of Fano, Italy, unequivocally correspond to the basilica designed by Marco Vitruvio Polião.
It’s the Basilica described by Vitruvius no On Architecture to that in the excavations of Piazza Andrea Costa, in Fano: the only building that can be attributed with certainty to the Roman architect. The official announcement was made this Monday, at a press conference
“In Fano a fundamental piece of the mosaic that holds the deepest identity of our country. The history of archeology and science, with the instruments currently available, is now divided into a before and an after: a before and after the discovery of the Basilica of Vitruvius”, declared the Italian Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, in
“History books will fix this day and everything that, in the coming years, will be studied and written around this exceptional discovery. The scientific value is of absolute scale; The elements found clearly demonstrate that Fano was and is the heart of the oldest architectural wisdom of Western civilization, from Antiquity to the present day”, he added.
“The extraordinary discovery represents something truly unique. It changes the perception of the city of Fano, our region and, more broadly, the Italian cultural and architectural heritage. It is the result of decades of work, in-depth studies and investigations and decisions that have allowed us to reach this point”, the statement also says.
The archaeological discovery
The Roman basilica described by Vitruvius, with a rectangular plan and perimeter colonnade with eight columns on the longer sides and four on the shorter sides, was found in 2023, during excavations associated with the requalification of Piazza Andrea Costa, in the center of Fano, a coastal city in northern Italy.
Definitive confirmation came with a final excavation, which revealed the fifth corner column, confirming the position and orientation of the building between the two squares: it is definitely the basilica designed by the genius who inspired Leonardo da Vinci.
The columns, about five Roman feet in diameter (147 to 150 cm) and 15 meters high, were placed against pillars and structural pilasters that supported an upper floor. The reconstruction of the plant, based on the Vitruvian description, found correspondence to centimeter.
Vitruvius was born in 80 BC. and died in 15 BC. The Roman architect, writer and engineer left as a legacy the treatise “De Architectura”, which established the foundations of classical architecture — in which he reports having built a basilica in Fano. But, until now, the work had never been found.
O “Vitruvian Man“, a famous drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, was based on the proportions of the male body described by the ancient architect in his treatise.
Although it has been appropriated by Catholicism over the centuries, the term “basilica” dates back to Ancient Greece and means a large covered space intended for holding assemblies.
