Ancient Roman road discovered in Venice

Apparently, Venice still hides many secrets, as a group of researchers recently discovered traces of an ancient Roman road in its lagoon, a sign that the area at that time would have been accessible by land and not submerged yet. 

It was announced in Scientific Reports by a team of experts from the Institute of Marine Sciences of the National Research Council (Ismar-Cnr) and the Iuav University of Venice.

The team discovered 12 archaeological structures aligned in a northeast direction for 1,140 meters in the Treporti Channel. According to the team team that made this discovery, they are a road and a pier that were located at sea level during the Roman era.

The incredible discovery has been supported by a research for which various technological systems, such as sonar mapping of the lagoon and 3D digital reconstruction of the road.

Moreover, the former discovery of stones in that area called “basoli“, very similar to those used by the Romans in the construction of other roads in the same area, and the size of the structures , which resemble those present in the lagoons of Grado and Marano, seem to confirm the hypotesis of the Roman origin.

Their presence confirms that centuries before the foundation of the city of Venice stable settlements were already present. Probably that road was an important part of the Roman road network in north-eastern Italy and was used to connect Chioggia, the ancient Clodia, to Altino, on the northern part of the lagoon.