Work to give 21st-century London yet another skyscraper has uncovered traces — in fact, chunks — of the city’s origins almost 2,000 years ago. Archaeologists exploring the site of a planned 32-story office tower announced Thursday that they have unearthed the remains of a Roman basilica that once stood at the heart of the city known as Londinium.

The 2,000-year-old basilica was “once the beating heart of Roman London,” the Museum of London Archaeology said.

Archeologists exploring the site of a planned 32-story office tower announced Thursday that they have unearthed remains of a Roman basilica that once stood at the heart of the city known as Londinium.

The plan was to demolish the old office building at 85 Gracechurch Street in the heart of London’s financial district and construct a new 32-story tower in its place. But as demolition began, archaeologists made a staggering discovery in the site’s foundation: remarkably intact ruins of London’s first public building,

Deep beneath a modern office building in London, archaeologists have made an extraordinary discovery – the remains of the first Roman basilica in the city. Constructed shortly after the Roman conquest of Britain,

The excavated remains in London consist of the Kentish limestone foundations of a massive two-story Roman basilica, where officials would have made key political and legal decisions. View on euronews