GRADO. - The ancient name of G. is Gradus, the first port of call for ships bound for Aquileia along the Natisone (like Gradus Arnensis = San Pietro a Grado near Pisa and Gradus Massaliorum near Marseille) and not Aquae gradatae; the center of Gradus was at the edge of an inhabited and cultivated countryside, almost entirely free from the waters and not on an island.
The history of G. properly begins with 568, when the patriarch of Aquileia, Paul, moved there in the face of the Lombard irruption into Venetia. But by then it was already a strong and safe place, provided with buildings of worship and dwellings; the Byzantine Empire was able to maintain itself there until Venice replaced it during the 8th century. Meanwhile, at the beginning of the 7th century, the new patriarchate of Aquileia was established in Lombard territory; while at G. the succession of patriarchs continued, who could no longer set foot again in ancient Aquileia. Thus there stood facing each other, a few kilometers apart, two patriarchates, of which that of G. was confined almost solely to the island of the same name, yet was metropolitan of the small Venetian bishoprics that arose along the coast as far as Chioggia. The patriarchate was transferred by Nicholas V in 1451 to Venice, and its first patriarch was St. Lawrence Giustiniani, formerly bishop of Castello. From then on G. was only a parish.
Walls of Roman buildings have appeared beneath the basilica of St. Agatha, and Roman epigraphs and reliefs come from the lagoon or from demolitions. Within the circuit of the walls, an elongated rectangle (probably 5th century), only partly preserved, three basilicas and three baptisteries can be recognized. The Cathedral (St. Euphemia) is a broad basilica of Ravenna type, tripartite, with a polygonal apse, erected by the patriarch Elias (571-586) on the walls of an earlier basilica, itself built around a small rectangular hall, later given an apse, with a baptismal font (beginning of the 5th century; a sepulchral mosaic is from the end of the century). It has its original mosaic floor, the most extensive of the 6th century, but with large areas of restoration, and contemporary marble chancel slabs; at the sides of the apse two martyria and on the right the salutatorium, all with fine mosaic floors. Worth mentioning in the treasury of the Cathedral are two silver capsellae (5th and 6th centuries) and a repoussé silver altarpiece (1372). Smaller is S. Maria delle Grazie, with its apse incorporated into the rectangular plan (5th and 6th centuries); between the two basilicas, the octagonal baptistery (5th century). Near the southern end of the enclosure the basilica of S. Agata has been excavated, arising in the 5th century and rebuilt in the 9th; it too had a baptistery. Near Grado, on the island of Barbana, there is a sanctuary of the Madonna, to which pilgrimages come from the whole region; those of the first Sunday of July and of the Assumption are picturesque. - See plate LXXIV.
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Mario Mirabella Roberti