The current Via Adriatica presents itself as a spectacular balcony overlooking the sea. Beyond it, a steep slope that stops about fifty meters below, where today there is a sports centre, the “Mura delle Lame” park.
The name of the site recalls that once, in place of the Via Adriatica, there were the city walls of this name, which collapsed due to the great snowfall of 1956, taking with them an entire row of houses. The event was not a catastrophe, only because it occurred over the course of a few days and without causing any victims, but it caused the loss of important buildings. However, it allowed the discovery of important archaeological remains from the Roman era, in particular under the apse area of the large church of San Pietro, which turned out to have been built on a previous Roman temple.
Some remains are immediately visible today, just beyond the railing overlooking the sea, in particular the base of a Doric column.
The discovery of a votive statuette attributed to the goddess Ceres, goddess of agriculture and fertility, suggests that the temple, on whose ruins the church of San Pietro was built, was dedicated to the “Mother Goddess”, already venerated by the Frentani under the name of Kerres.
To understand what this place looked like two thousand years ago, we must remember that the limestone hill on which Histonium stood had an overhang of at least forty meters over the surrounding countryside. Seen from the sea, to those arriving at the Roman port in the town of Scaramuzza, which today houses the monument to the bather, this area of the city must have appeared absolutely majestic.