The archaeological area displays the remains of buildings located in the south-western part of the municipium of Vicenza, which can be traced back to a period of time stretching from the late 1st cent. B.C. to late Antiquity. The area was occupied by buildings, which can probably be identified as private houses. Building remains were found under the nave, in the crypt and under the sacristy. At the moment only a stretch of a paved road discovered under the sacristy can be visited.

The first buildings under the nave and the road were discovered between 1946 and 1948 during the excavation carried out by the Regional Board for the Venetian Antiques (Soprintendenza alle Antichità delle Venezie) of the time on occasion of the building of the new sacristy. In the same years important remains of the Roman period and the early Christian age were discovered under the nave of the cathedral and, thanks to the commitment of the Regional Board for the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage of the Veneto region (Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Veneto) are currently undergoing renovation works in order to be classified and displayed in a museum. Other buildings of the Roman period, which have also been identified as houses, were discovered between 1975 and 1977 under the crypt; yet after the excavation they were reburied and today they are no longer visible.

Vicenza is located in the west-central plains of Veneto, at an average altitude of 40 metres above sea level. The city is surrounded by the Berici hills on the south and by the south-eastern margins of the Lessinian mountains of the west/northwest. This archaeological area is located in the heart of the modern city and it used to be in the south-western compounds of the Roman settlement.

I B.C. (end) – Late Antiquity