Villa Romana del Casale

Dear friends, today I propose a deepening of an artistic Sicilian good part of the UNESCO World Heritage sites: the Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina.

The Villa del Casale is a fundamental testimony of Roman civilization: its mosaics, as well as highlight an original figurative language, are an exceptional custom document, which allowed to investigate many aspects of daily life and cultural exchanges in the late Roman Empire.




The Villa
From the beginning of the excavations, in 1930, it became clear that it was the residence of a wealthy

owner or administrator of a large landowner. Two portraits found inside the villa could represent the members of the owner family.
The stratigraphic studies reveal that the first version of the building was conceived in a period ranging from the first century of the Christian era and the age of the Tetrarchy at the end of the third century.
Many indications that it was destroyed by an earthquake in the first decade of the fourth century. On the ruins of the old house it was built a new characterized by a grandiose monumentality.
Dated between 320 and 370, the building suggests that it was commissioned, if not by a Roman emperor, at least by a rich landowner of the region. Some scholars argue the hypothesis that the building belonged to the powerful Maximian, General Diocletian.
Despite the gradual degradation, the villa was inhabited at least until the Byzantine (eighth century),
The building was conceived on the model of Roman villas, but with a monumentality unequaled enough to make it appear that a villa is just a real palace.

An articulate, refined civil architecture

Built on terraces, the villa covering an incredible extension: until now the excavations have brought to light an area of ​​around 4,000 square meters. The complex appears divided into three major groupings connected evenly: the main entrance with the spa district, characterized by the presence of a gym, the "frigidarium", the "tepidarium" and "calidarium", as well as some environments accessories such as the pool or room for massage; the great peristyle with a central basin, on which there are the living rooms and the guest, and which leads, through the Great Hall of the Hunt, classroom basilica and the private environments; Finally the triclinium with the elliptical colonnade courtyard, a place to house the banquets of representation.
The function of salt, as well as their placement and architectural complexity, it is almost always
highlighted with clear allusions of the subjects represented in the beautiful mosaic floors.

The mosaics
unique feature of the villa are the 3,500 square meters of mosaics. In them you can highlight
two different issues: the classic one, dedicated to the mythological scenes, which are depicted mythological and hunting scenes; and the domestic one, illustrating the domestic life and plays with great fidelity and realism animal and plant species.
The most interesting mosaics are the "Great Hunt", and the great mosaic of the "Ten Girls".