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Hidden gemHub · 1 stop1st c. BC – 7th c. ADTicketed

Brixia – Brescia

city · Lombardy, Italy

What it is
Brixia was the Roman town beneath modern Brescia in Lombardy, and its old town keeps what en.wikipedia calls the best-preserved Roman public buildings in northern Italy.
What you’ll see
The forum and the Capitolium. Piazza del Foro still follows much of the Roman forum (it.wikipedia), and at its head stands the Capitolium, the temple Vespasian built in AD 73 (Pleiades; it.wikipedia).
Worth the trip?
Yes. A Roman temple you can walk into, with its painted predecessor beneath it, and two Roman houses under a museum roof are reason enough to come, and the city is on the Milan–Venice railway (en.wikipedia).
Getting there & cost
Brescia's main station is on the Milan–Venice railway (en.wikipedia).Ticketed · Santa Giulia is covered by the Integrated Ticket sold for the archaeological park (prices on the Piazza del Foro page) · checked 16 September 2026Hours, tickets and parking
A cobbled square lined with pale four-storey houses and parked cars, closed at the far end by the columned front of the temple, with a wooded hill rising behind it.
Piazza del Foro, which follows much of the Roman forum, looking north to the Capitolium at its head. · Photo: Geobia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The front of a Roman temple on a high terrace, a porch of tall columns banded in pale stone and red brick under a broken triangular pediment, with a pale stone wall and three dark doorways behind it, a wide flight of steps in front and railings around excavated ground below.
The Capitolium, Vespasian's temple of AD 73, at the head of the forum. · Photo: Geobia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A weathered Corinthian pilaster capital of pale stone, the fluted pilaster below it and a band of carved moulding, set in a wall of rough masonry beside a strip of red brick.
Carved detail on the surviving wall of the Roman basilica, on Piazzetta Labus. · Photo: Zanner · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

The stops

1 place to see, the best preserved and best known first.

See the stop on the mapWhere each one is, so you can plan your own way round.Open the map →

Brixia was the Roman town beneath modern Brescia in Lombardy, and its old town keeps what en.wikipedia calls the best-preserved Roman public buildings in northern Italy. Three visits make up Roman Brescia: the forum square with its temple, the Capitolium, and the archaeological park around it; the front of the forum’s basilica a short walk south; and two Roman houses inside the Santa Giulia museum on the same street as the park. It is worth the trip.

What is there today

The forum and the Capitolium. Piazza del Foro still follows much of the Roman forum (it.wikipedia), and at its head stands the Capitolium, the temple Vespasian built in AD 73 (Pleiades; it.wikipedia). With the painted halls of an older sanctuary beneath it, the bronze Winged Victory shown inside it and the theatre beside it, now closed while it is excavated (the operator), it is the main reason to come, and it has its own page, with the park’s hours and ticket: Piazza del Foro.

The basilica. South of the temple, the civil basilica closed the other end of the forum. It was a single hall 47.8 by 19.1 m, built in the Flavian period, and its remains stand on Piazza Giovanni Labus, at the back of the ancient building, with carved decoration still visible on the outer walls (it.wikipedia). The excavated interior, in the building that now houses the Soprintendenza, has no published regular hours; the Soprintendenza opens it on announced days (the Ministry of Culture).

The Roman houses at Santa Giulia. In the former kitchen gardens of the monastery of Santa Giulia, now the city museum, two Roman houses were found in 1967–1971, the Domus di Dioniso and the Domus delle Fontane, lived in from the 1st to the 4th century (it.wikipedia). Walkways lead over their mosaic floors, painted walls and underfloor heating, straight on from the museum’s archaeological rooms; it.wikipedia counts them among the best-preserved Roman houses in northern Italy. The museum’s Roman section also holds inscriptions and the bronze portraits found with the Victory (it.wikipedia). The UNESCO Corridor, a free pedestrian route opened in June 2023, links the Capitolium area to Santa Giulia (the operator), so the forum and the houses make one walk.

Is it worth the trip?

Yes. A Roman temple you can walk into, with its painted predecessor beneath it, and two Roman houses under a museum roof are reason enough to come, and the city is on the Milan–Venice railway (en.wikipedia). Plan to see both: the one ticket that admits to the archaeological park also covers Santa Giulia. The basilica is a front seen from Piazza Labus unless your visit falls on one of its open days.

Getting there and what it costs

Brescia’s main station is on the Milan–Venice railway (en.wikipedia). From it Via dei Musei, where the archaeological park and Santa Giulia stand, is a 20-minute walk, or a ride on the metro to the Vittoria stop and a 10-minute walk (the operator). Via dei Musei is in the restricted-traffic zone, and the operator points drivers to the city car parks, listed on the Piazza del Foro page. The nearest airports are Brescia (20 km), Bergamo Orio al Serio (56 km) and Verona (70 km) (the operator).

Santa Giulia keeps the same opening hours as the archaeological park, and the Integrated Ticket sold for the park covers it too; both are given on the Piazza del Foro page. Santa Giulia and the other city museums without the park are on the €15 Single Ticket (Fondazione Brescia Musei, pages captured 8 and 16 September 2026 – check before travelling, since prices move). The most recent announced opening of the basilica’s interior was on 26 September 2026, free, for the European Heritage Days (the Ministry of Culture).

Visiting details

Opening hours
The Santa Giulia museum, with the Roman houses, keeps the same opening hours as the Brixia archaeological park, which are given on the Piazza del Foro page. The interior of the Roman basilica has no published regular hours; the Soprintendenza opens it on announced days. The basilica front is seen from the street.
Tickets
Santa Giulia is covered by the Integrated Ticket sold for the archaeological park (prices on the Piazza del Foro page); without the park, Santa Giulia and the other city museums are on the €15 Single Ticket. The basilica's open days are free.
Parking
Via dei Musei, where the park and Santa Giulia stand, is in the restricted-traffic zone (ZTL); the operator points drivers to the city car parks listed on the Piazza del Foro page.

Before you go

  • The Roman basilica's excavated interior opens only on days the Soprintendenza announces.

Hours and prices checked 16 September 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.

History

The Gallic Cenomani made Brixia their capital, and allied themselves with Rome against the other Gallic tribes and against Carthage (it.wikipedia; en.wikipedia). The town became a municipium with Latin rights in 89 BC, and its people received Roman citizenship in 49 BC according to it.wikipedia, 41 BC according to en.wikipedia; in 27 BC it became a Roman colony, Colonia Civica Augusta Brixia (it.wikipedia). Under Augustus and Tiberius it gained an aqueduct, walls and a grid of streets, and from Vespasian onwards its great public buildings (it.wikipedia): the forum was rebuilt with the Capitolium at its head and the basilica at its foot, a story told on the Piazza del Foro page.

In 312 Constantine’s advance against Maxentius met an enemy force at Brixia and drove it back to Verona; Alaric’s Visigoths ravaged the city in 402 and Attila’s Huns sacked it in 452 (en.wikipedia). It was, with Verona, one of the last two cities to hold out for the Goths against Byzantium, falling to Narses only in 561/562 (it.wikipedia).

More photographs

The low walls of excavated Roman rooms under a museum roof, lit warmly against the dark, with stone paving, a floor panel and fragments of painted plaster on the walls.
The Domus dell'Ortaglia, Roman houses shown where they were found, inside the Santa Giulia museum. · Photo: Zairon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

  • Low ruined walls and floor levels under a long metal-framed canopy, crossed by a wooden walkway with railings, with a row of square brick-red pillars and a lawn beyond.

    Photo: Imiimane · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons

    25 km · villa · Lombardy

    Roman villa of Desenzano del Garda

    The excavated villa covers about one hectare, with residential wings and working quarters side by side (the operator).

  • Seen from the water, a long ragged line of pale stone walls and piers stands on top of a wooded bank above a narrow beach on the lake shore.

    Photo: Agsftw · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons

    30 km · villa · Lombardy

    Grottoes of Catullus

    The villa was a rectangle of 167 by 105 m, with a projecting wing at each short end, built on a sloping rock shelf that the builders cut back and propped up with massive substructures on the north side (it.wikipedia).

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 383603CC BY
Wikidata Q3645136CC0
Wikipedia (it) — Brixia (archeologia)CC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — BresciaCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (it) — Capitolium (Brescia)CC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (it) — Basilica romana di BresciaCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (it) — Domus dell'OrtagliaCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (it) — Museo di Santa GiuliaCC BY-SA 4.0
Fondazione Brescia Musei — Brixia, Roman archaeological area (hours, tickets, getting there)licence not recorded
Fondazione Brescia Musei — Ticketslicence not recorded
Fondazione Brescia Musei — Visit (opening times)licence not recorded
Ministero della Cultura — Apertura straordinaria dell'area archeologica della Basilica romana di Brescia (26 September 2026)licence not recorded