Complex of the Basilica of Saint Ippolito

Thanks to a successful excavation campaign begun in 1970, a Christian basilica - dating back to the 4th century A.D. - was brought to light in the area adjacent to the Romanesque bell tower of Sant'Ippolito.

The excavations ascertained that previous constructions occupied the area; some heated rooms have been discovered underneath the basilica, possibly connected to a thermal bath located to the northwest. Later, some tombs, maybe part of the vast necropolis of Porto, occupied the area.

This area saw the construction of a first apsidal room, possibly dedicated to the martyr Ippolito, who, according to tradition, was murdered in the 3rd century near the Fiumicino canal. The small building was rebuilt at the end of the 4th century in the form of a three-aisled basilica with a front portico; destroyed in 455 A.D. during the plundering by the Vandals, it was later rebuilt and then embellished by Pope Leo III (795-816) with a splendid ciborium, today rebuilt in the adjoining Antiquarium.

In a later stage after the 9th century, the three openings on the façade were closed, and the interior naves were reduced from three to one; the central space housed the schola cantorum, an enclosure used by cantors in particular rites, while on the left, there was a circular plan baptistery. Furthermore, the presbytery area revealed a strigilated sarcophagus - containing the bones of several people - with the inscription ‘Hic requiescit beatus Ypolitus mar(tyr)’. The church became the seat of the bishop of Porto in the 11th century, then fell into ruin in the 15th century without being rebuilt.

The adjacent Antiquarium, inaugurated for the 2000 Jubilee, keeps the sarcophagus of Ippolito, the inscription to the martyr, and the ciborium of Leo III, reconstructed thanks to fragments found.