In the Northeast of the city, there is Monastero, the only Aquileian suburb where it is still possible to admire the Roman atmosphere. Visitors can reach Monastero walking down "Via Sacra", close to the river port. Monastero takes its name from its big monastery, surrounded by all the other buildings of the suburb. The monastery was built during the IX century A.D. to house a female cenobium of the Benedict Order. In 1036, Patriarca Poppone enriched the monastery with his donations. During the years, all the religious centres were progressively abandoned, and the monastery became the “Monastero” par excellence.
On October 30th, 1782, the monastery stopped its functions due to a courtly decree promoted by Joseph II, and all the nuns went to Cividale. The entire property was sold by the Fondo di Religione to count Raimondo della Torre- Hofer e Valvassina in 1784. He sold it to Count Antonio Cassis Faraone in 1787. He made the suburb his family Aquileian residence – called “The Palace” –, and he collected there all the archaeological finds he found in his properties, or he bought from other collectors, as Giandomenico Bertoli.
In 1852 baron Eugenio de Ritter Záhony– an influential businessman – bought the entire suburb. Archduke Carlo Ludovico stayed there during his stay on the occasion of the Imperial Regio Museo dello Stato’s opening.
Since 1787, and particularly since 1852, the ancient monastic buildings had been renovated, according to the new owners’ needs. Some rooms and edifices changed completely their functions; for example, the church became a 'folador’, a space dedicated to the vinification.
In the ‘folador’, in 1895, during some excavation works to build a new wine cellar, they discovered some polychrome mosaics. Those mosaics have been found at the base of the pentagonal apse and along with the external and the internal perimeter. Enrico Maionicacarried out research into those finds, but his final reports were hidden.
The unique situation became clearer in 1949: the winery had been built using the outside walls of a basilica, dated back to the IV century A.D. Its façade had been destroyed during the 1700s to create a bigger room, 14 metres larger than the original narthex (portico), and a new neoclassical façade had been built.
The renovation project, at the end of the 1950s, mainly involved this area of Monastero, and architects and archaeologists decided to maintain the entire building, with its particular and rare construction history.
The idea was to create a museum that can collect all the Christian finds – dated back to a period between the IV and the X centuries. In the forepart, they built a first floor and a gallery above, from where it is possible to admire the entire structure of the religious building.
In order to end the renovation works, an eighteenth-century wall was pulled down. It used to divide longitudinally the basilica and the demolition permitted to discover many archaeological High Medieval finds.
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