Archaeological Site of Largo Madonna delle Grazie

Extensive excavation of the area between the medieval city walls and the Sanctuary of Madonna delle Grazie has brought to light numerous rooms pertaining to the earliest phases of the formation of the ancient city (late Republican-Augustan).

The oldest rooms are built with raw earthen masonries and with opus signina flooring with geometric decorations of white stone tesserae forming lattice or double meander motifs. At the eastern end, two rooms present a more complex decoration with a meander perimeter band enclosing a clypeus divided into rhombuses; at the corners respectively, four dolphins and four caducei (winged staffs with coiled snakes).

In the Augustan period, the republican buildings were included in a large domus with a central peristyle; from the 3rd century A.D. onwards, it became an industrial-type facility, a laundry (fullonica) for dyeing cloth, used until the 5th century A.D.