Church of San Giovanni in Tuba

The Church of Tuba is a significant vestige of the Gothic style, built on the wishes of the Counts of Walsee, Lords of Duino, between the 13th and 14th centuries. During the world wars the building suffered severe damage, but was later reconstructed at the end of the Second World War.
The single-nave floor plan features a polygonal apse underpinned by sturdy sloping buttresses and five trilobed double lunette windows. On the same site, near the source of the Timavo River, there used to be a pagan temple, some epigraphs of which can still be seen today, which were reused in later buildings. The presbytery of today's church contains the remains of an early Christian basilica: mosaic fragments from the 5th century AD, with octagonal geometric motifs, like those found in the structures of Aquileia and the Baptistery of Grado. Some elements of the marble furniture, dating from the early Christian and early medieval period, can also still be seen inside the church. The name "Tuba" could be connected to "tumba" in view of the tombstones found on the site, or to the Latin word tuba, indicating a natural or artificial water conduit, referring to the nearby underground river.