Basilica Cristiana

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The hall with a row of columns

The so-called Basilica Cristiana ( III, I, 4 ) is in the ancient city of Ostia . It is a representative building that research initially interpreted as a Christian church. However, more recent studies and considerations cast doubts on this interpretation. The building was discovered by Guido Calza in 1939 . The building dates to the fourth or fifth century; older parts of the wall date from the end of the first or the beginning of the second century.

The entrance to the building is on the city's decumanus . There are two entrances, each leading into a hall, which has a row of columns in the middle that supported the no longer existing roof. This part of the house, an elongated hall, was originally a street branching off from the Decumanus, which was closed in the fourth century and became part of this building. On the right side there are three rooms, the entrance of which is decorated with two columns. Behind the hall there are two more, each with an apse and a nymphaeum . The apses have niches for statues. Both halls are separated by a row of columns. There are two more rooms on the right. Various inscriptions were found in the building. One of them is:

In PX (Christo) Ge (h) on (!) Fison (!) Tigris Eufrata (!) / Tigri [n] ianorum (?) Sumite fontes
"In Christ, (you rivers) Geon, Fison, Tigris and Euphrates, receive the sources of Christians (in you)!"

The excavator Guido Calza thought the building was a church that was built under Constantine and is known from ancient sources. There are now considerable doubts about this interpretation. The Church of Constantine has since been located elsewhere. Certain building details do not fit a church, including the niches for statues in the apses and the nymphaeum, the room of which Calza interpreted as a baptistery . The inscription also names the rivers of Paradise, while the Jordan is mentioned in the Baptistery .

The interpretation of the building is therefore uncertain, but it may be a pilgrims' hostel or a larger house. In late antiquity, nymphaea in residential buildings are well documented, and the side rooms also speak for this interpretation. Other interpretations see the building as a library or a memorial for martyrs.

literature

  • Hans Schaal : Ostia - the world port of Rome . Bremen 1957, pp. 152–158.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ AE 1941, 97 .
  2. ↑ Schaal: Ostia , p. 156. The translation is based on the conjecture Christianorum for Tigri [n] ianorum .
  3. ↑ http://www.ostia-antica.org/regio3/1/1-4.htm

Coordinates: 41 ° 45 ′ 10.8 "  N , 12 ° 17 ′ 11.4"  E