Villa Romana del Casale

Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Villa Romana del Casale


State Party = ITA
Type = Cultural
Criteria = i, ii, iii
ID = 832
Region = Europe and North America
Year = 1997
Session = 21st
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/832

Villa Romana del Casale is a Roman villa located about 5km outside the town of Piazza Armerina, Sicily. It contains the richest, largest and most complex collection of Roman mosaics in the world.R. J. A. Wilson: "Piazza Armerina". In: Akiyama, Terakazu (Ed.): "The dictionary of Art. Vol. 24: Pandolfini to Pitti." Oxford 1998, ISBN 0195170687.] It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.The Villa was constructed (on the remains of an older villa) in the first quarter of the fourth century A.D., probably as the center of a huge latifundium covering the entire surrounding area. How long the villa kept this role is not known, maybe for less that 150 years, but the complex remained inhabited and a village grew around it, named Platia, derived from the word "palatium" (palace). It was damaged, maybe destroyed during the domination of the Vandals and the Visigoths, but the buildings remained in use, at least in part, during the Byzantine and Arab period. The site was finally abandoned for good when a landslide covered the villa in the 12th century AD, and remaining inhabitants moved to the current location of Piazza Armerina.

The existence of the villa was almost entirely forgotten (some of the tallest parts have always been above ground) and the area used for cultivation. Pieces of mosaics and some columns were found early in the 19th century, and some excavations were carried out later in that century, but the first serious excavations were performed by Paolo Orsi in 1929, and later by Giuseppe Cultrera in 1935-39. The latest major excavations were in the period 1950-60 by Gino Vinicio Gentili after which the current cover was built. A few very localized excavations have been performed in the 1970s by Andrea Carandini.

In late antiquity most of the Sicilian hinterland was partitioned into huge agricultural estates called "latifundia" (sing. "latifundium"). The size of the villa and the amount and quality of its artwork indicate that it was the center of such a latifundium, whose owner was probably a member of senatorial class if not of the imperial family itself, i.e., the absolute upper class of the Roman Empire.

The villa evidently served several purposes. It contained some rooms that were clearly residential, others that certainly had official purposes, and a number of rooms of as yet unknown intended use, though they were definitely not built for commercial or production reasons. The villa would probably have been the permanent or semi-permanent residence of the owner; it would have been where the owner, in his role as patron, received his local clients; and it would have functioned as the administrative center of the latifundium.

Currently, only the manorial portions of the complex have been excavated. The ancillary structures - housing for the slaves, workshops, stables, etc. have not yet been located.

The villa was a single-story building, centered on the peristyle, around which almost all the main public and private rooms were organized. Entrance to the peristyle is via the atrium from the west, with the thermal baths to the northwest; service rooms and probably guest rooms to the north; private apartments and a huge basilica to the east; and rooms of unknown purpose to the south. Somewhat detached, almost as an afterthought, is the separate area to the south. containing the elliptical peristyle, service rooms, and a huge triclinium.

The Latifundium and the Villa

The overall plan of the villa was dictated by several factors: older constructions on the site, the slight slope on which it is built, and the passage of the sun and the prevailing winds. The higher ground to the east is occupied by the Great Basilica, the private apartments, and the Corridor of the Great Hunt, the middle ground by the Peristyle, guest rooms, the entrance area, the Elliptical Peristyle, and the triclinium, while the lower ground to the west is dedicated to the thermal baths.

The whole complex is somewhat unusual, as it is organized along three major axes; the primary axis is the (slightly bent) line that passes from the atrium, tablinum, peristyle and the great basilica (coinciding with the path visitors would follow), while the thermal baths and the elliptical peristyle with the triclinium are centered on separate axes. In spite of the different orientations of the various parts of the villa they all form a single structure, built simultaneously. There is no indication that the villa was constructed in several stages.

Little is known about the earlier villa, but it appears to have been just a large country residence, probably built around the beginning of the second century.

References

Bibliography

* Petra C. Baum-vom Felde, Die geometrischen Mosaiken der Villa bei Piazza Armerina, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-8300-0940-2
* Brigit Carnabuci: "Sizilien – Kunstreiseführer", DuMont Buchverlag, Köln 1998, ISBN 3-7701-4385-X.
* Luciano Catullo and Gail Mitchell 2000. "The Ancient Roman Villa of Casale at Piazza Armerina: Past and Present"
* R. J. A. Wilson: "Piazza Armerina", Granada Verlag: London 1983, ISBN 0-246-11396-0.
* A. Carandini - A. Ricci - M. de Vos, Filosofiana, The villa of Piazza Armerina. The image of a Roman aristocrat at the time of Constantine, Palermo 1982.
* S. Settis, "Per l'interpretazione di Piazza Armerina", in Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome. Antiquité 87, 1975, 2, pp. 873-994.

External links

* [http://www.villaromanadelcasale.net/index-en.htm Villa del Casale 3D Virtual Tour] en icon
* [http://www.villaromanadelcasale.it Official web site] it icon
* [http://win.villaromanadelcasale.it/inglese/index.htm Official web site] en icon