For more than five centuries, the Basilica described by the Roman architect Vitruvius existed in a strange state of half-presence: it was known in words, studied in drawings, debated in books, and searched for repeatedly in the ground beneath the city of Fano, a coastal city in the province of Pesaro e Urbino, Marche, but it remained elusive.
Now, with the identification of substantial architectural remains in the historic center of the city, that long pursuit appears to have reached a turning point. The discovery is important because it closes a historical circle that links a classical text, Renaissance scholarship, and modern urban archaeology in an exceptionally rare way. To understand its significance in full, we must begin by looking at Vitruvius himself.
