AURELIAN WAY

VIA AURELIA
Via Aurelia

 241 BC for the consul Gaius Aurelius Cotta on a former Etruscan route

The VIA AURELIA VETUS was 134 km (83 miles) long starting in Rome from the Sublicius Bridge, leaving Rome through Porta San Pancrazio, to end up in Cosa, today's Ansedonia, in Tuscany. It was later extended to Pisa
After Pisa it deflected east toward Lucca avoiding the northern coast of Versilia, from Migliarino Pisano until Luni, for the presence of the warlike Apuan people which made the area a dangerous one

It was Julius Caesar in 56 BC to instruct Marco Emilio Scaurus to build the shortcut directly from Pisa to Luni, the current Sarzanese Provincial Road 
It was eventually extended to Genoa and Augustus (27 BC / 14 AD) had it extended until Massalia (modern Marseille) as the Via Julia Augusta
Antoninus Pius (138/161) had it extended to Arles (Gaul Narborense) coming to the length of 936 km (581 miles) and taking the name of VIA AURELIA NOVA

On the site of MALAGROTTA (Mola rupta), 12 km (7.4 miles) from Porta S. Pancrazio, were found paved stretches of the ancient Via Aurelia and the tower tomb called Monumentum Magnum Rotundum

Also along Via di Malagrotta, near the largest landfill in Europe, was found a necropolis, not far from the necropolis of Via Castel Malnome-Piana del Sole, where over 300 burials have come to light
The name Malarupta, later Malarotta and finally Malagrotta, derives from a grinding wheel on the Galeria River remains of which are still visible

St. MARY OF THE REST

S. MARIA DEL RIPOSO

Via Aurelia 327/Via della Madonna del Riposo

Aedicula in the countryside transformed into an oratory in the fifteenth century

Rebuilt in 1561 for Pius IV Medici (1559/65)

Expanded in 1566 for St. Pius V Ghislieri (1566/72) to whom was dedicated in 1952 the nearby Church of St. Pius V

Pius V had also a house built near the church but it was destroyed in 1953 to widen the road. It remains only a large ashlar portal to the left of the church

Restorations in the years 1901 to 1958

ALTAR

Venerated late Renaissance fresco “Madonna of the Rest” believed to be miraculous in between “Two Evangelists”

DOME

Very damaged fresco “Coronation of the Virgin Mary”