I thought I had already seen all of what the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta in Aquileia has to offer. On my way out of the basilica, I saw another flight of stairs which leads underground. I already visited a crypt here and it was amazing. This one is called the Crypt of Excavations because it is underground and there was some excavation going on here. Turns out that the thousand year old basilica was built on top on an older Roman settlement which was here centuries before. I can’t imagine how digging under an existing basilica is safe but archeologists managed to it without bringing the basilica down.

Inside the Crypt of Excavations, there is another elevated walkway which brings visitors around the excavations. There are also signs which describe what is being shown here. I don’t think I need any signs to see that there are also old Roman mosaic. I thought that it was interesting to see how Roman aesthetics haven’t changed much over the centuries. I guess technology improvements moved slower back then and at least from my eyes, there was little difference between the old mosaic and the more recent ones in the basilica. For me, my mind was blown knowing that this part of the basilica is even older and how well preserved these ruins are considering where they were found. I would imagine that digging to build the basilica would have already uncovered these, but perhaps, they didn’t pay too much attention to it since it seems too ordinary for the Romans of the time.

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