L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 24 L'Italo-Americano HERITAGE MEMORIA IDENTITÀ STORIA RADICI F or more than five c e n t u r i e s , t h e Basilica described b y t h e R o m a n architect Vitru- vius existed in a strange state o f h a l f - p r e s e n c e : i t w a s known in words, studied in drawings, debated in books, and searched for repeatedly in the ground beneath the city of Fano, a coastal city in the province of Pesaro e Urbino, Marche, but it remained elu- sive. Now, with the identifica- tion of substantial architec- tural remains in the historic center of the city, that long p u r s u i t a p p e a r s t o h a v e reached a turning point. The discovery is important because it closes a historical circle that links a classical text, Renaissance scholarship, and modern urban archaeolo- gy in an exceptionally rare way. To understand its signif- icance in full, we must begin by looking at Vitruvius him- self. He was one of the most influential figures in the his- tory of Western architecture, yet paradoxically also one of the most abstract: active in the late first century BC, he is k n o w n a l m o s t e n t i r e l y t h r o u g h h i s t r e a t i s e D e Architectura, a technical and theoretical work that sets out principles of proportion, materials, urban planning, a n d p u b l i c b u i l d i n g s . F o r architects from the Renais- sance onward, Vitruvius was a foundational authority, and figures such as Leon Battista Alberti and Andrea Palladio read him closely, annotated his text, and attempted to translate his principles into built form. What they could not do, however, was point to surviving buildings that could be securely identified as Vit- ruvius's own work; the basili- c a h e c l a i m e d t o h a v e designed in Fano, in particu- lar, became a kind of architec- tural phantom: frequently cited, endlessly hypothesized, but never located. T h e i m p o r t a n c e o f t h e recent identification lies pre- cisely in how it fits within this gap between text and material evidence: according to Vitru- vius's own account, the basili- ca of Fanum Fortunae had a distinctive layout, with specif- ic proportions, column place- ments, and spatial relation- ships that mirrored his own architectural ideals, and the remains uncovered in Fano correspond closely to this description, in measurable a r c h i t e c t u r a l t e r m s . Archaeologists involved in the project emphasized that the discovery was the result of a methodical process in which the ancient text itself guided targeted excavation, which means, in a way, the basilica wasn't "found" but sought based on a close dialogue b e t w e e n l i t e r a t u r e a n d archaeology, as explained to Valeria Di Cola of National Geographic Italia. This convergence is his- torically significant because i t a l l o w s V i t r u v i u s t o b e understood not solely as a theorist, but as a practicing architect operating within t h e p o l i t i c a l a n d c u l t u r a l framework of late Republi- c a n a n d e a r l y A u g u s t a n Rome, a period when basili- cas were not religious build- ings, but civic ones. They functioned as spaces for legal p r o c e e d i n g s , c o m m e r c i a l transactions, and public life, often positioned near the forum at the heart of the city. T h e b a s i l i c a a t F a n o , a s r e c o n s t r u c t e d f r o m t h e remains, appears to have played this role, too; very importantly, too, its scale and architectural ambition r e f l e c t a m o m e n t w h e n R o m a n u r b a n i s m w a s becoming increasingly stan- dardized, formalized, and i d e o l o g i c a l l y c h a r g e d , a s c i t i e s a c r o s s I t a l y w e r e reformed and renewed to mirror Roman authority and civic order. Seen in this light, the dis- c o v e r y a l s o c h a n g e s o u r understanding of Fano itself: known in antiquity as Fanum Fortunae, the city occupied a strategic position along the Adriatic coast and was inte- grated into the Roman road network, so there is plenty about it we know already. T h e i d e n t i f i c a t i o n o f t h e basilica, however, forces his- t o r i a n s t o r e c o n s i d e r t h e organization of its ancient urban center, including the location of the forum and the alignment of major public spaces. This is why, Di Cola c o n t i n u e s , r a t h e r t h a n adding a single monument to the city's map, the find actu- a l l y p r o m p t s a b r o a d e r reassessment of how Fano functioned in Roman times, and how its civic identity was expressed architecturally. But the story of the basili- ca is as much about early modern scholarship as it is about ancient Rome, if it's true that, since the moment Vitruvius's treatise was redis- covered and printed in the late fifteenth century, the basilica of Fano became an object of fascination. Renais- sance humanists and archi- tects believed that locating it would offer direct access to the architectural wisdom of antiquity and, over the cen- turies, numerous structures beneath Fano were proposed as candidates, often on slen- d e r e v i d e n c e . T h e s e attempts, though unsuccess- ful, are part of the historical significance of the discovery because they show how the authority of classical texts shaped the way Europeans interpreted both architecture and the past and led to long- term scholarly inquiry. H o w e v e r , t h e m o d e r n excavation differs sharply from earlier efforts, as it was carried out in the context of urban redevelopment and supported by public invest- ment programs, including f u n d i n g a s s o c i a t e d w i t h Italy's National Recovery a n d R e s i l i e n c e P l a n . Excavation was carried out in phases, integrated with con- struction schedules, and sup- p o r t e d b y s t r a t i g r a p h i c analysis, geophysical surveys, and digital modeling, in an approach that openly reflects a b r o a d e r s h i f t i n h o w archaeology operates in liv- ing cities, where discoveries and subsequent excavations must cohabit with daily life, as the Ministero della Cul- tura explained. I t i s a l s o w o r t h n o t i n g that, while seminal in its his- t o r i c a l a n d a r c h i t e c t u r a l nature, the discovery is in itself limited, as large por- tions of the structure have been lost to later construc- tion, and the basilica survives only in fragments. Interpre- tation remains ongoing, and scholarly debate will contin- ue as further analysis is com- pleted. This caution is impor- tant, especially given the enthusiasm surrounding the announcement: archaeology rarely delivers absolute cer- tainty, and responsible inter- pretation depends on distin- guishing between what can be securely established and what remains hypothetical. E v e n s o , t h e b r o a d e r implications remain huge: if, as current evidence strongly suggests, the identification holds, the basilica would rep- resent the only building that can be convincingly attrib- uted to Vitruvius himself, and that alone would give the f i n d e x c e p t i o n a l w e i g h t . More importantly, however, it would provide a concrete point of reference for under- standing how architectural theory functioned in practice during a formative period of Roman history, allowing his- torians to test ideas that have l o n g b e e n s t u d i e d i n t h e abstract and to reconnect architectural thought with the realities of urban space, politics, and civic life. In this sense, the discov- ery of the basilica of Fano is truly a historical event. It marks the moment when a text that influenced centuries o f a r c h i t e c t u r a l t h i n k i n g f i n a l l y m e e t s t h e g r o u n d from which it emerged. For Italy, a country where the past is often visible but not always fully understood, the find also offers a reminder of the fluid, living nature of his- t o r y , w h i c h c o n t i n u e s t o unfold, sometimes in ways t h a t b r i n g l o n g - s t a n d i n g questions into unexpectedly sharp focus. CHIARA D'ALESSIO Vitruvius was Rome's own star architect, author of the treatise De Architectura (Image created with ChatGPT) Vitruvius in Fano: the ancient Basilica that became a renaissance fixation

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