The small church that can be admired today in the countryside is located about a kilometer from the village of Clauiano; erected right on the route of the consular road, which led from Aquileia to Cividale and then to Noricum, it was the point of reference for numerous nearby villages, for which it served as a parish church.

The building probably dates back to the 14th century but has a certainly older origin: archaeological findings of rubble, tiles, and roof tiles (materials used for the construction of roads and houses) from the Roman era bear witness to this. 

In the early medieval period, in fact, the construction of Christian buildings on Roman settlements was very common – especially near the confluences of multiple roads to facilitate access on the occasion of markets or religious festivals – or on more archaic sites, such as small temples or pagan shrines. This phenomenon could be explained by the difficult transition from paganism to Christianity: one of the most practical and concrete aspects of this transitional period is represented precisely by the material overlap of a Christian temple on a pre-existing pagan one. This is certainly the case with the rural church of S. Marco.