Italy: Villa Romana di Casignana
April 2024

The villa had fine views out to sea.

A large first century aristocratic Roman home which had obviously been sited very carefully close to the coast of the Ionian sea giving it great views and cooling sea breezes. To the west of the home were two separate baths areas. Some very good floor mosaics remain in situ.¹

The residential complex began quite small, only five rooms, consisting of a large cruciform room with an apse facing the sea - the "Sala Absidata", and on the northern side three small rooms and the "Sala delle Quattro Stagioni" - the Hall of the Four Seasons.

The large apse at the southern end of the long corridor.

Most of the polychrome floor mosaic in the open, circular space on the south side is intact, but detail is hard to discern. There is a female face in the centre, with thick curly hair, surrounded by a swirling plant design.

This nucleus of rooms was gradually extended into a much larger villa, with a long portico corridor with a large apse at each end which overlaid the central apse of the "Sala Absidata".

On the south side of the villa is a set of rooms which includes a large, circular colonnaded space which was open to the south.

South side of the villa.

Detail of mosaic in the open, circular space on the south side.

Above and below: rectangular room with polychrome mosaic on the south side of the villa.

The south east corner of the villa with a circular, open, colonnaded room with an almost intact mosaic floor, a rectangular room to the north, again with a good mosaic floor, and beyond these is the southern end of the long corridor which ends in an apse.

Detail of mosaic in south rectangular room, depicting a drunken Bacchus supported by a small satyr.

There are a number of mosaic floors in the villa but most are hard to make out, covered in dust or faded. Although the whole site is covered the sides are open so it is vulnerable to wind-blown dust and sand. Good photography is difficult in the low light conditions.

Sala Absidata

This large cruciform room was once the the centre of the original five-roomed villa. The apse which occupied the east end has gone, the space cut through by the long corridor.

The north end of the villa.

Mosaic floor at the west end of the Sala Absidata.

The northern set of rooms is accessible from the large apse on the north end of the corridor. The largest of the rooms here is though to have been a triclinium, used for entertaining and elaborate meals. It is called the "Sala delle Quatro Stagione" - the "Hall of the Four Seasons" from the faces representing the four seasons in the mosaic floor. Only two of these have survived, winter and summer.

The Thermal Baths.

Sala delle Quatro Stagione

Summer

Winter

Frigidarium, West Baths.

Section of the main room with an apse and the west cold pool. The mosaic composed of triangles in the apse mimics a peacock's tail.

The Thermal Baths consisted of two sections, Eastern and Western; both had the usual set-up for Roman Baths - a frigidarium (cold room), tepidarium (warm room) and calidarium (hot room).

Frigidarium, West Baths.
Two apses and the east cold pool.

Frigidarium, West Baths from the west end.
The main room with four apses and a cold pool on each of the east and west sides. The walls were lined with marble.

The main room of the West Baths Frigidarium has a lovely 3D perspective block mosaic floor.

The rectangular room of the calidarium, West Baths, from the east.

Calidarium, West Baths.
The rectangular and square rooms.

All rooms of the calidarium are heated by a system of pipes embedded in the floor and walls.

The West Baths calidarium was composed of three rooms. A rectangular room oriented east-west with an apse on both east and west sides. The mosaic floor is a beautiful mixed geometry design.

Next to it is a square room with two marble-lined and heated tubs.

Finally an octagonal room on the east side. Both have polychrome mosaic floors, though there is little left of the one in the octagonal room.

The square room in the West Baths calidarium.

The Hall of the Nereids with the West Baths frigidarium beyond.

The Hall of the Nereids; Nereid riding a lion.

The square room in the West Baths calidarium.

The frigidarium of the East Baths adjoins the frigidarium of the West Baths, though they are not accessible from each other. The East Baths frigidarium is called the "Hall of the Nereids" for its well-preserved floor mosaic depicting four Nereids, each riding an animal: a lion, a bull, a horse and a tiger.

Room to the south of the Hall of the Nereids.

The Hall of the Nereids; Nereid riding a horse.

Rooms to the south of the Hall of the Nereids.

Room of the East Baths calidarium

Part of the heating system with an underground hypocaust.

To the east of the Hall of the Nereids is a suite of rooms making up the East Baths calidarium.

Floor mosaic, room of the East Baths calidarium

The east end of the long corridor on the south side of the central courtyard.

The vast central courtyard of the complex is bounded on the southern side by a long corridor with a fine mosaic floor. At the east end is a round mosaic which is called the "Indian Triumph of Dionysus".

The mosaic shows Dionysus on a cart drawn by two tigers Behind the tigers a figure stands holding a stick in one hand and Pan pipes in the other.

Indian Triumph of Dionysus

References

1. Villa Romana di Casignana

52 Things to see & Do in Calabria by Michelle Fabio was used as a guide.
The Silk Route Home