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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.
A number of tiny and very large fulleries has been found in Ostia, workshops where clothes were cleaned, which the (wealthier) Romans apparently did not do at home. Four were published by A.L. Pietrogrande in 1976, in one of the volumes of Scavi di 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.
Ostia's golden years: the second and early third century. During its hey-day Ostia was a densely populated city, with a large variety of buildings, and a mixed and "international" population. But first and foremost it was a harbour city, serving the needs of Rome, characterized by warehouses and the seats of guilds.
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.
In Ostia a temple complex was built in the Hadrianic period in the south part of town, to the west of the Laurentine Gate. The complex was built against the Republican city wall. It consists of several buildings on the sides of a large triangular field (campus), measuring 84 x 106 x 130 meters.
