FIUMICINO

On the sea level. 53,000 inhabitants

A fishing and shipbuilding center, developed since 1825 on the right bank of the waterway with the same name

It became an independent municipality in 1992

Development project by Giuseppe Valadier (1762/1839) who designed for the Torlonia family also the church of S. MARIA PORTO DELLA SALUTE

Intercontinental Airport Leonardo da Vinci

1950/57 first sector with International and National Aerostation and Ground Control Tower by Amedeo Luccichenti (1907/63), Vincenzo Monaco (1911/69), Riccardo Morandi (1902/89) and Andrea Zavitteri (1927)

It was expanded with the two Alitalia hangars 1960/63 and 1970 by Riccardo Morandi

It is the most important and the busiest Italian airport with over 30 million passengers a year

It was built on the area of the ancient

Port of Claudius (41/54)

Built during the years 42/64, opened under Nero (54/68) with two curved piers and the great four-stories lighthouse, for the foundation of which was used a ship that Caligula had brought to Rome in order to transport the Vatican Obelisk

It was built two miles north of the mouth of the Tiber River where maybe there was already a natural bay

The decision was criticized and it was not successful, since the cover-up caused by natural debris was more frequent precisely on this side of the estuary. It was also too exposed to the storms and in fact, during the year 62, before the opening, about 200 boats were destroyed by a terrible storm

It was enlarged in the years 106/113 by Trajan (98/117) with the hexagonal basin with sides of 358 m (1,174 feet) and an area of ​​nearly 32 hectares (80 acres) still perfectly preserved

It was connected to the sea with the FOSSA TRAIANEA (Canal of Trajan), the still existing Channel of Fiumicino

More than 100 ships could moor at the same time

Around the basin there were:

To the west, a palace, a theater, a spa building

To the east residential quarters and a round building maybe the Temple of Portunus

On the southwest so-called "Warehouses of Severus" which actually date back to the Antonine period (96/192 AD)

Museo delle Navi

Museum of the Ships

Educational museum opened in 1979 with five of the seven Roman ships (dating from the second to the fifth century AD) found in the years 1958/65 in the port of Claudius during the works for the construction of the Fiumicino airport

Two Naves Caudicariae or river barges for freight

Small "Boat of the Fisherman" (Fiumicino 5) with a central nursery for fish transport

The museum is currently closed for renovation

Necropolis of "Portus"

Tombs dating back to the period between the second and the fourth century AD

Two areas, one in the northern part with tombs known as Tombe ex Opera Nazionale Combattenti (Tombs of the former National Soldiers Associations) and one in the southern part corresponding to the vast public area of the necropolis

Buildings even two-story high, richly decorated inside with paintings, stuccos and mosaics

On the front of the tombs marble inscriptions with the names of the owners, the conditions of use of the tombs and often also their size

Alongside the inscriptions there were typically terracotta reliefs depicting the jobs of the buried people, mostly belonging to an entrepreneurial class consisting of merchants and freedmen

Basilica of St. Hippolytus and Antiquarium

Between Via Redipuglia and Via Col Moschin

Dedicated in the late fourth/early fifth century to the martyr Hippolytus who was from Portus

The building currently visible maintains the orientation of the original building and it is divided into three naves by two rows of columns of which the bases remain

The FAÇADE is of the open type with three entrances

The upper parte of the APSE was covered with mosaics and the steps of the bishop's throne are still visible

In the MAIN NAVE are preserved structures believed to be part of the choir and in the western nave there is a small baptismal font

In the small ANTIQUARIUM there is an exhibit of marble objects related to the cult of the martyr (inscriptions, sarcophagus) and the marble furnishings of the basilica (ciborium, barriers)

Baths known as “Matidia’s Baths”

The baths were built around a rectangular hall

Rooms belonging to a first construction phase (mid-second century AD) and rooms subsequently added during the third/fourth century AD

The complex remained in use until the sixth century AD, when it was stripped of much of the precious marble covering