Archaeology: the first ‘hotel’ discovered in Jesolo

Archaeologists at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice have discovered the first ‘hotel’ in Jesolo (the ancient Equilium), which is now one of the main bathing site in Veneto with millions of tourists every summer. The compound was built in the 4th-5th century A.D. on a small island near the old estuary of the Piave Vecchia, in the current site ‘Le Mure’.

After two years of investigation, digs and research, Sauro Gelichi, director of the archaeological project at Ca’ Foscari and professor of Medieval archaeology at the Department of Humanities, presented the discovery. “It was a stopping place (mansio) maybe for Imperial civil servants on the endolagunare route. This alternative route - or rather complementary to the land route - had been hypothesised before, but now relies on archaeological evidence”.

A part of the mansio structured for hospitality purposes has already been explored: it is characterized by a series of similar spaces set side by side and divided in rooms with beds and kitchens (with a fireplace in each room). Next to this ‘hotel’ there were buildings for craftsmen’s workshops and probably a small chapel for religious purposes. The compound was certainly bigger.

The Late Antique and Early Medieval compound was located on the insula Equilus, far from other stopping places on the main road, the Via Annia, as it welcomed those who came by water, through channels and the endolagunare route connecting Ravenna, Altino and Aquileia.

Archaeologists at Ca’ Foscari and the municipality of Jesolo believed in this research and supported it from the very beginning: they are extremely optimistic on the outcome of future research aiming at shedding light on one of the best preserved antique reception facilities in Italy.

Michele Bugliesi, rector of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, declared: “Archaeology is one of our leading research field and this new discovery is a remarkable achievement in a sector that has brought our archaeologists in many excavations in Italy and abroad. We are very happy to present today the latest finds and add a new page in the history of our region and country. I want to thank the municipality for its precious support and professor Gelichi and its team for the success achieved”.

The archaeological research

The 2017 campaign has expanded archaeological evidence mapping with noninvasive investigations and geoarchaeological and paleoenvironmental research.

Prospecting and building stratigraphic profiles has allowed to evaluate the depth and typology of archaeological stratas as well as to take samples to date the channels in dry land. Indeed the site’s area currently consists in fields which covered all traces of the ancient lagoon.

The history of Equilo, with the exploitation of maritime resources (using murex to produce purple for the famous wools of Altino) on the 2nd century A.D. and later with this Late Antique mansio, had several defining moments such as the presence of a church with mosaic pavement built in the 6th century D.C. and the consolidation of a community with its aristocrates between the 8th and 9th century leaving relevant written legacy as well as archaeological treasures, notably sarcophagi. This history ended with a beautiful and surprising ‘copy’ of Saint Mark’s basilica, a cathedral whose ruins can still be seen in the countryside.

Ca’ Foscari’s archaeological research is a training space for many young talented students from Italian an international universities (Rome, Oviedo, Tbilisi) but also a place for trialling and scientific cooperation in collaboration with the universities of Siena and Padua, aiming at reconstructing and telling a forgotten - or simply hidden - page in the history of the area, a history intertwined with those of ancient Altino and of the future Serenissima, which it helps explaining.

Enrico Costa