Chiesa di San Giovanni in Tuba

Gothic church by the Timavo springs, with mosaic remains of a 5th-century early Christian basilica and inscriptions from a pagan temple; free admission.

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About the museum

The church of San Giovanni in Tuba stands by the springs (risorgive) of the Timavo river, in the territory of Duino. It was built at the wish of the counts of Walsee, lords of Duino, between 1399 and 1472, in Gothic forms: it has a single nave and a polygonal apse supported by sturdy buttresses, with five double trilobed lunette windows. The building was seriously damaged during the two world wars and rebuilt in the late 1940s.

The same site previously housed a pagan temple, of which epigraphic evidence survives, reused in later buildings and still visible in the area. The site was then occupied by an early Christian basilica, whose remains are preserved in the presbytery of the present church: fragments of a 5th-century mosaic with octagonal geometric motifs, similar to those of Aquileia and of the Baptistery of Grado. Marble furnishings from the early Christian and early medieval periods are also visible in the church.

The name “Tuba” may derive from “tumba”, because of the tombstones found on the site, or from the Latin term for a natural or artificial water channel, referring to the nearby underground river. The complex is a state property and also includes an antiquarium.

Highlights

Gothic single-nave church of the 15th century
5th-century early Christian mosaic in the presbytery
Inscriptions from a pagan temple still visible in the area
Marble furnishings from the early Christian and early medieval periods
Location by the springs of the Timavo

Operated by: Ministero della Cultura – Soprintendenza Archeologia belle arti e paesaggio del Friuli Venezia Giulia