'Significant' early Christian church emerges beneath former fish market in ancient city

The discovery was announced in a June press release by the Archaeological Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Metropolitan Area of Venice and the Provinces of Belluno, Padua and Treviso.

Excavation at the site began last November as part of preparations for a residential redevelopment project in the city's historic center.

Archaeologists determined the 1,600-year-old building was a large rectangular church measuring about 75 feet wide and at least 98 feet long, with a central aisle and two side aisles.

"The foundations, up to 1.2 meters (4 feet) thick and built from brick bonded with mortar, rest on wooden piles driven into the alluvial soil-a construction technique widely used in antiquity to improve stability," officials said in a statement translated from Italian.

The church's eastern end has not yet been excavated - suggesting the complex may be even larger than currently known.

At the site, archaeologists also uncovered four burials containing the remains of seven individuals.

"Anthropologists are currently studying the remains of the seven individuals, and future specialized analyses are expected to provide additional information about both the cemetery and those buried there," officials said.

Researchers have not yet determined when the church fell out of use, though evidence suggests it was abandoned and later stripped of building materials before being destroyed during the Middle Ages.

Archaeologists believe the discovery represents the earliest known Christian place of worship in ancient Oderzo, as the church dates to a period when Christianity was becoming the dominant religion of the Roman Empire.

The discovery "[opens] a new chapter in the history of ancient Opitergium during the Late Roman and Early Medieval periods," the statement said.