Monumental Roman Basilica Identified as Long-Lost Work by Vitruvius
It's the first physical building to be attributed to Rome's "father of architecture."
The remains of a 2,000-year-old basilica has emerged in the center of Fano in Italy—and with it, a tantalizing connection to one of ancient Rome’s master builders, Vitruvius.
The structure was discovered during redevelopment works on the Piazza Andrea Costa in the heart of Fano. It is laid out in a rectangle, bordered by eight columns on the long side and four on the shorter ones. They’re magnificent columns too: onsite measurements reveal they span almost 60 inches—or five Roman feet—in diameter, with a likely height of about 49 feet.
The layout and columns mirror exactly a basilica that Vitruvius described in Book V of his major treatise De Architectura (1st century B.C.E.).
1914 rendering and floor plan of Vitruvius’s basilica in Fano.
In it, the architect alludes to a building he “carried into execution in the Julian colony of Fano,” before detailing the measurements for elements such as porticos (20 feet wide) and height of columns (50 feet). His reported structural system for these columns—pilasters and corner supports—corresponds with the Fano find. Using Vitruvius’s account, archaeologists were also able to locate the structure’s fifth corner column, which established its orientation.
“There are few certainties in archaeology,” the area’s archaeological superintendent Andrea Pessina said at a news conference announcing the find, “but we were impressed by the precision” of the match.
The excavation of an ancient Roman basilica in Fano, Italy.
While Vitruvius’s writings have survived, physical evidence of his structures have not. The Fano discovery, in fact, marks the first time a material edifice has been attributed to the architect. A hint of the building’s existence first emerged in 2022 when a dig at the nearby Via Vitruvio surfaced wall structures and pavements, made of valuable marbles, that suggested the presence of a high-status structure in the vicinity.
“After centuries of waiting and study, what for a long time was transmitted only through the written word has been transformed into a concrete, tangible, and shareable reality,” Fano’s mayor Luca Serfilippi added at the same conference.
Portrait of Vitruvius, engraving by Jacopo Bernardi based on a drawing by Vincenzo Ray.
An architect and engineer active in 1st century B.C.E., Vitruvius fixed the design principles that shaped much of ancient Roman construction. While little is known about his life, his De Architectura was key in setting out his architectural philosophy—founded on the tenets of beauty, utility, and strength—while showcasing his knowledge in fields ranging from physics to music. His opus, which spanned 10 books, is the only surviving architectural text from Classical Antiquity.
Vitruvius’s writings went on to inspire Renaissance practitioners such as Mariano di Jacopo and Francesco di Giorgio Martini, who penned their own architectural treatises. Most famous among Vitruvius’s students is, of course, Leonardo da Vinci, who based his Vitruvian Man (c. 1490) on Book III of De Architectura, in which the architect discussed the proportions of man.
The excavation of an ancient Roman basilica in Fano, Italy.
The latest identification of an actual building by Vitruvius adds to our understanding of the so-called “father of architecture,” but also reshapes the historical narrative of Fano itself. According to the Italian Cultural Ministry, talks are underway to gain the site UNESCO-protected status, while technical plans are in the works to protect the fragile ruin.
The discovery, Pessina noted, is “of extraordinary importance, not only for the scientific community, but also because it opens new and concrete perspectives on the archaeological heritage of Fano… Fano, from today, has one more tool to tell the world about its history.”
By Min Chen.
