{"id":21141,"date":"2024-02-21T11:48:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T16:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/medieval-church-lost-for-centuries-reemerges-at-iconic-site-in-venice-photos-show\/21\/02\/2024\/"},"modified":"2024-02-21T11:48:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T16:48:58","slug":"medieval-church-lost-for-centuries-reemerges-at-iconic-site-in-venice-photos-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/medieval-church-lost-for-centuries-reemerges-at-iconic-site-in-venice-photos-show\/21\/02\/2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Medieval church \u2014 lost for centuries \u2014 reemerges at iconic site in Venice, photos show"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Reaching Venice\u2019s iconic Piazza San Marco means crossing several canals and not getting lost along the narrow cobblestone streets. Turning that final corner and entering the wide, tiled square feels like a reward.<\/p>\n

The plaza oozes elegance, and the centerpiece is obviously the tower and neighboring 1,000-year-old basilica. Tourists point their cameras that way. Cafe chairs angle that direction.<\/p>\n

But underneath the plaza sits a medieval secret \u2014 one that archaeologists recently rediscovered.<\/p>\n

Archaeologists in Italy began excavating the center of the Piazza San Marco<\/a> to restore the well-trodden paving stones, the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Municipality of Venice and the Lagoon said in a Feb. 19 Facebook post.<\/p>\n

Hidden below, they found the first clue: a rectangular brick tomb filled with skeletons. A photo shows the muddy burial.<\/p>\n

The tomb dated to the seventh or eighth century<\/a>, when people were commonly buried inside of or next to a church, Sara Bini, the excavation\u2019s lead archaeologist, told the Italian newspaper Rai News.<\/p>\n

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