Visiting UNESCO World Heritage sites in Europe has become rather predictable for me. I would expect to visit a lot of churches along the way. I know they are very important which is why they became world heritage sites but I have been noticing that a lot of them are churches. I don’t expect it to be any different this time around especially now that I am in Italy where there are countless churches in the country. My first church in this trip is the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta in Aquileia. During its prime, the city of Aquileia used to be one of the largest cities in the world, these days it is just a shadow of its former self with only a handful of thousand people living here.

The basilica still remains and it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing of the city. The basilica is actually almost a thousand years old but it doesn’t really show, at least from the outside. From the outside it didn’t really look that impressive. However, it is what is inside which is most valuable here. The church is famous for its mosaic which can be found on the floor. Naturally, management can’t have people stomping all over such a precious cultural treasure so it was blocked off. There are select segments of the mosaic which were put on display off to the side of the church to give visitors a better look at the work. Just looking at the mosaic makes me impressed with the amount of work that had to go into making something like it. There were figures of animals and of course some religious themed images as well. This is not a painting though so these images tend to be simpler but no less impressive.
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