Archeology

Isola Comacina - Archeologia

The Comacina’s archaeological schedule

Considered one of the most impressive archaeological sites in northern Italy of the Middle Ages, the Comacina island has regained its past glory thanks to excavations carried out during the course of the 1900s, these have unearthed a schedule of outstanding archaeological interest dating from Roman times to the sixtheenth century.

It is due to Ugo Monneret de Villard, historian and archaeologist, that the first of the excavations were undertaken in 1914 and resulted in the discovery of the remains of St. Euphemia. Then followed another five other archaeological campaigns between 1958 and 1978, conducted by the architect Luigi Mario Belloni, passionate admirer of the Lake land and his wife Dr. Mariuccia Zecchinelli. He discovered numerous architectural remains mostly Christian and early medieval together with a large amount of furniture finds. Belloni accomplished an extraordinary campaign of underwater searches in the surrounding lake basin, that brought to the surface numerous exhibits of the island.

In addition to the many civilian remains found using military criteria, appear the remains of a Roman marble columns visible beneath the floor of the eighteenth-century church of St. John. There are also late antique finds, such as the base of a tower which, in all probablility, as the Romanesque bell tower of St. Euphemius and evidence of an early Christian baptismal biabsidata hall. The most precious archaeological discouveris are certainly the complex of St. Euphemius, in which are visible the division with three naves and three apses, the crypt and the beautiful porch to front wings together with the remains of the church of St. Mary with Portico and St. Peter at Castle.
Some research has also been carried out on the square stone walls of the medieval complex of St. Faustinus and St. Jovita.

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