In early days of Christianity, right after the edict of Milan in 315, the mosaic artists of the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta in Aquileia faced a challenge: they wanted to depict a whale on the floor of the basilica. The problem was, none of them had actually seen a whale in real life. So how what they ultimately imagined what a whale looked like…well that remained a mystery for hundreds of years.
Those mosaic artists got to work on an elaborate floor, here in the far northeast corner of Italy, a stone’s throw from Slovenia.
Like most early houses of worship, the Basilica was rebuilt and modified several times. In the Romanesque era, they thought it would be a good idea to cover up the tile floor and everyone forgot about the original floor until, in 1901, this was discovered underneath:
Gah!
As someone who has worked for decades in cultural spaces, I get a kick out out the continuity of ancient practices in present day, including dedication plaques and donor walls. Here’s a Latin dedication to Bishop Theodore.
And of course, the ultimate donor-blowing initiative: the donor portrait.
The animal life on the Basilica is charming and, at least in the case of the turtle and the rooster, symbolic: the turtle represents the darkness of sin, while the rooster is Christ, the light of the world.
I enjoyed the variety of aquatic life depicted, although—after the octopus and the angry fish—I wasn’t quite sure how to identify all of them. That one in the middle is an…undersea vagina?
Casting down their nets among the sea creatures, I spied these avidly fishing…naked angels?
Check out this dude, reclining odalisque-style under some hanging squash. (Whenever I fly Lufthansa and the flight attendant pulls the curtain across first class to cut off the view, I imagine all the German men up there reclining semi-nude in their lie-flat seats just like this).
Now here’s the masterpiece of the Basilica’s floor mosaic: Jonah and the Whale or Jonah and the Loch Ness Ostrich?
Did I mention that the Basilica is a UNESCO site?
While nothing in the Basilica could be as fascinating at the Loch Ness Ostrich, this small chapel called Santo Sepolcro from the 11th century comes close. The chapel serves as a mini pilgrimage site, so if you didn’t have the means to travel to Jerusalem, a stop into this mini-Jerusalem was an acceptable proxy.
How I got to Aquileia: day trip from Udine by bus.
Where I slept: Mercatovecchio. Price: €170 for a room with a kitchenette. Recommended: yes
Picnic at the Cathedral 
They got the birds and beasts, and the fish and octopi pretty accurately. Why would they imagine a rooster’s head for a whale?
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Best guess is they read some accounts that whales were warm blooded and had fins so naturally that translated into rooster head with feather fins????
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What a treat to see all these details in your photos, thanks so much!
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You’re too kind. Luckily, there was a glass walkway so you could photograph all those detail under your feet.
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I enjoyed the mosaics immensely – but now cannot see an advert for Lufthansa without untoward images coming to mind…
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Helen, that’s the reason they curtain off first class—the spectacle of the German odalisques would drive us to distraction.
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I’d like to know a little more Latin to understand the dedications, plaques, and memorials. I get the “fecit”, “Deo”, “Imperius / Imperator”, but I’ve always liked reading years spelled out in Roman.
Long-haul where 1st-class seats are all occupied by half-nekked dudes: umm nao eww.
Vienna will have to make do with a duplicate of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” in the city’s Minorite Church.
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That’s a super early chrismon in the Latin dedication.
I left out the detail that the semi-nude dudes are eating bananas because I thought that would be too much, you’re welcome.
You’re always teaching me new things about Vienna, thank you. Maybe I’ll go in the fall if I find a direct flight on frequent flyer points. What’s the most non-obvious artwork I should see there?
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