Colombarone

Immersed in the greenery of the San Bartolo Park, the archaeological area and the Antiquarium of Colombarone, a site rich in architectural traces and an adjacent museum with excavation finds, document centuries of history of the Middle Adriatic territory.

Many years of research, from 1983 to 2008, made it possible to discover a unique and special area, from which a late antique villa, a basilica and a parish church emerged. Dating back to the end of the third century AD, the stately home was the country residence of a landowner or a state official and many of the mosaics dating back to between the fourth and sixth centuries are still visible.

In the sixth century some sectors of the structure were abandoned while the representative one was transformed into a Christian church; in that period was born what will be the early medieval basilica of San Cristoforo ad Aquilam surrounded by a cemetery area. In the following centuries (VII-X), the church underwent modifications several times, assuming considerable dimensions, until it became a simple parish church in the late Middle Ages. At the end of the 12th century the oldest part was demolished and the “Chiesola” (demolished in 1858) was built in its place, a section of the perimeter wall of which was recovered.

Colombarone's function as a center of worship has never been extinguished. Not far away, a small church was built in the nineteenth century and the current parish in the early decades of the twentieth century.