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Archaeological site · Pratola Serra (AV)

Pratola Serra Archaeological Area

  • Visit: about 1 h 30 min
  • 288 m
Pictured: Pratola Serra · Cripto Supertramp · Public domain · resized

On the Pioppi hill, a Lombard basilica with a baptistery built over the remains of a Roman villa with baths.

It all began in January 1981, when rebuilding works after the earthquake uncovered the walls of a large church: this is how the Pratola Serra archaeological area came about, on a hill in the Pioppi-Saudelle district. The site shows many phases, from a Neolithic level and a Bronze Age hut to a Roman villa with baths of the 2nd–3rd centuries AD.Over the villa's storerooms was built the Lombard basilica of San Giovanni di Pratola, with a baptistery and a large apse that probably held the bishop's throne, perhaps of the bishops of Abellinum who moved here after the Lombard conquest. We are struck by the cemetery of over 123 tombs, where gold and silver crosses and a rare coin of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius were found.

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On the map

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