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This website is dedicated to Ostia, the harbour city of ancient Rome. Here you will find information for professional archaeologists and historians, for students of Roman archaeology and history, and for interested lay-people.
OSTIA VISITING THE RUINS: Hints and tips for visiting Ostia, Portus, the Isola Sacra necropolis, and the Museum of the Roman Ships.
In response pope Gregory IV (827-844) built a new town to the east of Roman Ostia: Gregoriopolis, at the spot of the modern village Ostia Antica. Here the church of Saint Aurea, a martyr from the third century AD, had been built.
General information. Address Ostia Antica, Viale dei Romagnoli 717, Rome RM, Lazio, Italy. Visiting Ostia is like visiting Tivoli and Hadrian's villa: a relaxing trip that takes you away from the noise and incessant police-sirens of Rome. Reserve a whole day for your visit: Ostia deserves it.
Introduction. Each archaeologist studying Ostia is acutely aware that the ruins represent the situation in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. This situation was in great contrast with the developments in the second century, when Ostia was flourishing like never before or after.
Early Ostia. To the east of Ostia were salt-pans, where salt was probably already extracted in the Middle and Late Bronze Age (1400-1000 BC). There may have been a small village near the salt-pans in the Early Iron Age (1000-700 BC).
A fire destroyed almost the entire building in 1823. The current and completely new basilica was opened in 1840. The nickname of the campanile (from 1860) is "il faro", and the model for it was the lighthouse of Portus. Paul may have walked on the Via Ostiensis, from Rome to Ostia.
The history of the ruins of Ostia is long and complicated. It is the story of barbarian invasions and raids by pirates, of a visit by Richard the Lionheart or Coeur de Lion, of popes who owned the site and started searches, and of digging aristocrats.
This page will lead you to general maps and plans of Ostia and Portus, and to bird's eye views, past and present. The plans of Ostia from Scavi di Ostia, vol. See also an overview by the Sapienza University, Rome.
In the virtual museum of Ostia you will find two categories: photos of many objects in the museum and storage rooms (by inventory number), and old photos of the buildings and their decoration, taken by the National Italian Photographic Archive (ICCD). Introduction. The museum and the storage rooms.
