On a hillside near Atessa, in the Chieti province, lies the remnant of a small Italic sanctuary, likely dedicated to Vejovis, an obscure Roman god of uncertain provenance. The site, excavated in the 1970s, occupies what was then called Passo Porcari, between Monte Marcone and Saletti. Today, a local street name, ‘Via Veiove’, preserves the memory of this ancient place of worship.
Italic temples of this era were often modest structures, built to serve local communities rather than grand state cults. They typically comprised a single cella, sometimes fronted by a porch, and were sited in liminal landscapes, passes, springs, or groves, where the divine felt close at hand. Rescue excavations in the immediate vicinity, between 2017 and 2020, uncovered purportedly medieval material ahead of a road modification, suggesting the area’s long, layered history of human use. The sanctuary itself remains a quiet footnote in the landscape, a faint echo of a pre-Roman world.
Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.
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