Piran - the Roman sites under the medieval town and the modern hotels

Piran, Slovenia

It might seem churlish if you are in Piran a beautiful medieval/early modern town on the Slovenian coast, to ignore all the wonderful architecture and beautiful houses, as well as the fantastically preserved late medieval city wall to look for Roman remains. But the Piran peninsula forms the southernmost tip of the bay of Triest and lies more or less opposite Roman Aquileia and its late-Roman, early medieval successor Grado.

We know from historical sources that by the 933 a Byzantine castrum existed at Piran and the town legend that it was founded by refugees from Aquileia underlines the perceived links to the most important trading centre of the Northern Adriatic.

But what is the actual evidence for Roman presence in Piran?
A good start is the local Museum of the Sea. Conveniently close to the harbour in the Gabrielli Palace, it has a nice collection of some of the archaeological material found between Koper/Capodistria and the Bay of Piran. As their distribution map shows, there are several sites in the area that have produced Roman material, often in the form of amphora kilns, which suggests that the bay may have been home to at least Roman villa estate during the Roman period. These Istrian villa sites have been identified at a number of coastal sites along the Western Adriatic coastline, The site on Verige Bay on Brijuni in Croatia is probably the best known of these. While they no doubt formed attractive (summer) residences, the large number of production buildings associated with them shows that they actually served an important economic function as well, using their coastal location to allow for easy transport of their agricultural products. 

Piran, Museum of the Sea, distribution of Archaeological sites around Piran, also indicated are the salt flats. 

But what do we know of the residents of Piran itself? The town has produced some Roman gravestone, whose style is very similar to those in Aquileja museum, mentioning Roman citizens and freedmen. 

Piran, Museum of the Sea, Roman Gravestone.

Of more interest is the second stone that can be found with a bit of searching in the old city, close to the old Jewish quarter:

Piran, Roman gravestone with groma

As is easily apparent the stone was reused in later period but the images appear to show two armillae and underneath it a square with a central rod, which is linked to the corners of the square, this is one of the few ancient depictions of a groma that I am aware of. A groma is a survey instrument that allows for the speedy lay-out of straight lines and right angles on building sites and formed one of the common tools when laying out a Roman camp or town. Its presence on a gravestone in place, for which no military is known, is unusual and the stone should be better known. 

 

But are there any structural remains in Piran itself of the Roman period? For this, we have to climb to the top of the hill to the cathedral of St.George. The church sits on top of a steep cliff with excellent views over the bay of the Triest and towards the headland on the opposite side of the bay of Piran and on a clear day, the Alps, Triest and much of the northern Adriatic coast are clearly visible. The current church was built during the Venetian period (as the Campanile clearly suggests) but sits on much older roots. The site has produced some beautiful Longobardic and Romanesque sculpture (of which more in a different post), but underneath it all are some impressive remains. 

Piran, St. George's church. The Roman excavations

The remains appear to date to the second century AD, and 'can be identified as the remains of a pagan temple', although this and the identification of the pre-Roman remains behind it remain very tentative. The association appears to stems from antiquarian statements on the presence of an ancient temple, although what evidence they relied on, is equally problematic, especially as ancient maps and directories like the Tabula Peutingeriana or the Itinerarium Antonini do not appear to list the town.
The surviving evidence does suggest good quality masonry and thus certainly more than a passing fisher hut. But if this represents a temple or a light house, such as those known from Spain, Dover or Boulogne (not to mention Alexandria), has to remain open at the current time.
To those visiting Piran, I would very much recommend making the time to see the remains in the museum and under St. George. It was certainly an afternoon well spent (and at least partially fuelled by the excellent ice cream available in the town). :-)