Villa adriana 2016 eng

TREASURES OF ITALY AND UNESCO

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VILLA ADRIANA TIVOLI

TREASURES OF ITALY AND UNESCO

One of UNESCO’s main objectives is identifying, protecting, safeguarding, and transmitting the world’s cultural and natural heritage to future generations.

Since the adoption of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1972, to date, UNESCO has recognised 1031 world heritage sites 802 cultural, 197 natural and 32 mixed properties) in 163 countries.

Italy is the country with the largest amount of sites included in the World Heritage List and the “Treasures of Italy and UNESCO” collection takes readers on a journey to admire its inimitable treasures of nature, art and architecture.

TREASURES I TESORI OF D’ITALIA ITALY AND E L’UNESCO UNESCO

VILLA ADRIANA (TIVOLI)

This publication is issued under the patronage of the “UNESCO Italian National Commission”

Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo COMUNE DI TIVOLI

Texts: Benedetta Adembri Editorial coordinator: Alessandro Avanzino Account: Paola Ciocca Bianchi Editor: Titti Motta Graphics and layout by Gabriella Zanobini Ravazzolo Printed by Grafiche G7 Sas per Sagep Editori Srl, August 2016 Photos: Archivio della Soprintendenza Archeologica del Lazio e dell’Etruria Meridionale, photos were granted with permission no. 1328 del 05.02.2015 Translation: Langue&Parole, Milan © 2016 Sagep Editori www.sagep.it ISBN 978-88-6373-435-5

UNESCO, founded in Paris on November 1945, is a United Nations organisation which deals with culture, education, sciences, and the arts.

With its headquarters in Paris, UNESCO currently has 195 member states.

UNESCO has two basic objectives: to promote the dialogue between the cultures of the member states and develop them, and to preserve the cultural and natural heritage of humanity.

The former objective is extremely significant in the organisation’s activities, as the body itself was built on the conviction that only constant intercultural dialogue and development of culture, arts, sciences and education systems can encourage cooperation between nations, understanding between populations economic progress, social justice and world peace.

UNESCO pursues the latter goal by identifying, protecting, safeguarding and transmitting the world’s cultural and natural assets to future generations.

Based on an international treaty (the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage) UNESCO has recognised by now 1031 world heritage sites (802 cultural, 197 natural and 32 mixed properties) in 163 countries.

According to the Convention, cultural heritage means a monument, a group of buildings or a site of historical, aesthetic, archaeological, scientific, ethnological or anthropological value.

Natural heritage, on the other hand, indicates physical, biological, and geological features, in addition to the habitat of threatened species of animals and plants and areas of outstanding universal value from the aesthetic or scientific point of view.

Heritage represents the inheritance of the past that we all benefit from and transmit to future generations.

Our cultural and natural heritages are an irreplaceable source of life and inspiration. Unique and diverse places such as the wild stretches of the Serengeti National Park in Eastern Africa, the Pyramids in Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Baroque cathedrals of Latin American make up our World Heritage.

It is the universal application that makes the concept of World Heritage truly exceptional.

World Heritage Sites belong to the population of the world, beyond the borders where they are located. www.unesco.org

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1999 Villa Adriana inscribed in the World Heritage List

he Villa Adriana (at Tivoli, near Rome) is an exceptional complex of classical buildings created in the 2nd century A.D. by the Roman emperor Hadrian. It combines the best elements of the architectural heritage of Egypt, Greece and Rome in the form of an “ideal city�.

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Inscription: 1999 Criteria (I) and (III): The Villa Adriana is a masterpiece that uniquely brings together the highest expressions of the material cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world; Criterion (II): study of the monuments that make up the Villa Adriana played a crucial role in the rediscovery of the elements of classical architecture by the architects of the Renaissance and the Baroque period. It also profoundly influenced many 19th and 20th century architects and designers.

View of the Canopus with copies of the famous series of sculptures.

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Contact details • Archaeological Area Office: tel. +39 0774530203 · fax +39 0774531979 website: villaadriana@beniculturali.it • Ticket office service provided by Società Cooperativa Culture: tel: +39 0774382733 villa.adriana@coopculture.it www.coopculture.it For information and reservations: Individuals: +39 06 39967900; Monday-Friday: 9am-6pm; Saturday: 9am-2pm Groups: +39 06 39967450; Monday-Friday: 9am-6pm; Saturday: 9am-2pm Schools: 848082408; Monday-Friday: 9am-6pm; Saturday: 9am-2pm School groups: reservation for entry time is mandatory during the period from March to October.

Location Villa Adriana Archaeological Area Largo Marguerite Yourcenar, 1 00010 Villa Adriana - TIVOLI (Rome) The site can be reached by public transport: - from Rome by Metro B stopping at Ponte Mammolo and Co.Tral bus in the direction of Via Prenestina with the stop approximately 300 metres from the site, or Co.Tral bus in the direction of Via Tiburtina with the stop approximately 1 kilometre from the site, or Co.Tral bus in the direction of Tivoli/A24 motorway with the stop approximately 1 kilometre from the site; - from Roma by state railway train stopping at Tivoli station and CAT bus number 4 with the stop in front of the archaeological site.

Visiting hours The Villa Adriana Archaeological Area is open every day with the following visiting hours: 9am-5pm from 2nd January to 31st January; 9am-6pm from 1st February to 29th February; 9am-6:30pm from 1st March to the last Saturday in March; 9am7pm from the last Sunday in March, with the start of summer time, to 30th April; 9am-7:30pm from 1st May to 31st August; 9am-7pm from 1st September to 30th September; 9am-6:30pm from 1st October to the last Saturday in October; 9am-5pm from the last Sunday in October, with start of winter time, to 31st December.

The ticket office closes an hour and a half earlier.

The Archaeological Area is closed on 1st January, 1st May, and 25th December, except for extraordinary openings under the MiBACT (Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism) project, which are communicated on institutional sites.

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The Villa uilt between 118 and 138 AD by Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus), probably born in Italica, near Seville (Spain) on 24th January 76 AD; adopted by Trajan, his father’s cousin, he became his

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successor as emperor in 117 AD. The villa is constructed on an area of at least 120 hectares, on a tuffaceous plain lying between two moats: Acqua Ferrata to the east and Risicoli or Rocca Bruna to the west.

To build such a majestic complex, Hadrian decided to move his residence outside the capital, choosing a green area full of waterways, near Tivoli, 28 km from Rome, on tuffaceous beds lying at the foot of the Tiburtine

Mountains.

The area that can currently be visited covers about 40 hectares.

Literary sources say that Hadrian, with his extremely versatile personality, particularly loved architecture, which he personally dedicated himself to.

Villa Adriana, aerial view of the central area with the Maritime Theatre.

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Villa Adriana, aerial view of the northern zone with the Pecile and the Large Thermae.

The characteristics of the villa layout, different to the architectural norms of the era, show his participation and knowledge beyond any doubt. An example of this kind can be seen in Rome in the Temple of Venus built in the Forum; but even the Pantheon, a refurbishment of the previous temple built by Agrippa, by some scholars attributed to Apollodorus of Damascus, emperor

Trajan’s official architect, was built in a new form and with innovative techniques. At Rome we find another important monument commissioned by Hadrian, Castel Sant’Angelo, originally destined to be used as the emperor’s tomb and subsequently transformed into a fortress by the Papal States.

The villa includes residential buildings, thermae,

nymphaea, pavilions, and gardens that alternate in a truly unusual layout, which does not mirror the usual sequence of villas and domus, including imperial ones.

The various buildings were linked to one another by surface routes and also an underground network for carts and pedestrians used for services.

The villa’s extraordinarily rich architectural and sculptural decoration

was subject to frenetic and systematic research starting from Renaissance times.

The plundering of marbles, occurred in Medieval times for various reuses, led to such a spread of the villa’s decorations that almost all of the main museums and collections of Rome and the rest of Italy, as well as Europe, have items from Villa Adriana among their works.

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The visit ou will discover the wonders of the past immersed in the green of centuriesold trees: olive trees, oaks, holly oaks, and cypress trees are homes to bands of squirrels, alongside majestic pines and Judas trees which turn pink in spring.

There are also resourceful cats, curious to meet new visitors, and darting carp in the bodies of water with tortoises basking in the sun.

You can admire sweet blackbirds and woodpeckers, while hoopoe birds come out towards evening

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The so-called Antinoeion.

time to show off all of their refined elegance, beating their wings flying low.

Antinoeion nearthed in the excavation campaigns carried out between 2002 and 2005, a building was recognised as a place dedicated to the memory of young Antinous, a favourite of the emperor, who died tragically in the Nile in 130 AD. The construction, which the brick stamps date to after 134 AD, in the years following Hadrian’s return from Egypt, is

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certainly characterised as a place linked to the Egyptian world. Its layout is strikingly similar to the Serapeum at Campus Martius in Rome (semi-circular exedra, presence of basins, division into courtyards, access via monumental arches, presence of two small facing temples) and the sanctuary to Isis at Industria near Turin. The division into courtyards bordered by walls separated by narrow corridors, together with the presence of waters and foundations,

This reconstructive model of the villa was made by the architect Italo Gismondi in the 1950s to mark the new layout for better use of the Archaeological Area, following new excavation finds.

The Scale model is situated in a modern building constructed especially and designed by Gismondi. evokes the Egyptian serapea, as we see in the examples found in Alexandria, on the Nile delta.

This is the only building of the Villa Adriana residential complex which, in addition to restoring a notable series of Egyptian-theme sculptures in the past and recent excavation campaigns, also presents an Egyptian style characterisation in its higher levels, therefore it can be considered a sort of “travel souvenir�.

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The Canopus: the curved colonnade of the northern zone.

15 An expert in art and Greek culture as were the Romans of his status, and especially connected to Athens, Hadrian appears particularly sensitive to the appeal of oriental and mystery

liturgies, which he was even initiated to and which had a significant influence over the Roman world, also from a cultural point of view.

Antiquarium of Canopus he areas built

by Hadrian along the western side of Canopus were used for the Antiquarium, which holds a broad

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choice of sculptures excavated during the Aurigemma digs in the 1950s, including the famous series of larger-than-life sized statues, which we can see copies of along the bank of the body of water.

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The Canopus: night-time view.

17 The sculptural works originating from other buildings of the villa include Aphrodite of Cnidus and the Athlete from the Nymphaeum with the Temple of Venus, the Doryphoros of Polykleitos from the Small Thermae, the VescovaliArezzo type Athena from the Building with Three Exedrae, the Ephesus style Hera from the Piazza d’Oro; and, in addition, certain precious sculptures which were unearthed in recent excavations in the area of the socalled Gymnasium, near the Greek Theatre, including a statue of Horus and a crouching sphinx.

The marble architectural elements, for the interior and the garden, on show as examples of the wealth and sophistication of the furnishings and decorations, include two refined column bases, capitals with dolphins and aquatic leaves, curvilinear friezes with figures which can be referred to the decoration of

the Maritime Theatre and Piazza d’Oro, and a series of pillars which used to support arbours of vines, decorated with vegetation elements populated with small animals and objects evoking the rural world.

Among the imperial portraits, those of the Severan dynasty document the villa’s residential use at least until the start of the III century AD.

Biblioteche hese two buildings are traditionally defined the Greek Library and the Latin Library. The two north-facing buildings were linked to each other via a portico and had their main entrance onto a garden embellished with a long fountain ending with two octagonal basins parallel to the outer

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wall of the Upper Terrace.

The Greek Library has three storeys, with the upper level fitted with a heating system. The service rooms and corridors where the praefurnia were located were on the intermediary level which had no direct link to the upper floor.

The two-storey Latin Library has a similar layout to the Greek Library. This too

The Greek Library seen from the inside of the Maritime Theatre.

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19 features a sequence of two rooms laid out on the same axis.

The front room, opening out onto the garden with the fountain, features rectangular niches along the walls. The back room, on the other hand, is embellished in the back apse by a base for a statue group, placed in order to be visible from outside.

Both the flooring and the walls of the two rooms were covered in marble.

The two buildings have been interpreted in various manners: as libraries due to the niches on the walls, as summer triclinia, as they face north and open out onto the garden, as turres to indicate the residence of the emperor, as Vitruvius wrote, or, more recently, as monumental entrances to the area of the Palace.

Canopus and Serapeum t was the famous Neapolitan architect in the service of cardinal Ippolito II d’Este, Pirro Ligorio, who recognised the Canopus mentioned in the biography of Hadrian (Elio

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Sparziano, Vita Hadriani) on the “long valley” in front of the complex apsed pavilion with water features, which he defined the temple of the deity Canopus or Neptune.

The identification of this area of the villa with the Egyptian channel which linked the city of Canopus – the location of a famous temple dedicated to Serapis – with Alexandria on the Nile delta, was accepted without reserves, as amply documented by archaeological literature. Not only had Ligorio found a statue of Isis, but this was subsequently confirmed further by the attribution of the series of basalt and black stone Egyptianstyle sculptures to this area of Villa Adriana. Excavated in the 18th century by the Jesuits, such sculptures are now conserved at the Vatican Museums.

However, a recent critical review of antiquarian sources uncovered the true finding place of the sculptures to be the area in front of the Cento Camerelle, the Antinoeion, also included in the property of the Jesuits in the 18th century and where

similar materials were recently brought to light during excavation campaigns carried out in recent years.

The presence of a stibadium, or lectus triclinaris, within the large exedra pavilion of the Canopus proves that the complex is to be interpreted as a large open-air banquet space, embellished with water features: waterfalls, channels, and the glass mosaics on the large umbrella vault of the exedra all give the pavilion almost the appearance of a monumental fountain. The stibadium, built with a brick semi-circular base and inclined surface, in ancient times was covered with rugs and cushions. Guests would recline on it during feasts, refreshed by the water running in rivulets, cascades, and fountains surrounding the diners, guaranteeing freshness and a pleasant atmosphere, complete with a view over the long body of water. The latter, framed by an arbour and flowered bushes, was completed with numerous sculptures, partly emerging from the water. At the

southern end, a brick square was the base for a Scylla group of sculptures, while the opposite side probably featured a crocodile fountain made in cipollino marble.

Among the Egyptian-theme finds excavated in the fifties when the entire area was unearthed, in addition to the crocodile there was also a statue of a half-reclining figure representing the Nile and two Sileni carrying baskets used as atlases, deriving from the Alexandrian model.

In addition to the statue of Isis uncovered by Ligorio, there are few Egyptian-type sculptures that we can be sure came from the Canopus.

Furthermore, they were also realised according to the standards of Hellenic art rather than in Egyptian style.

The apsed pavilion (the socalled Serapeum) with water features.

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The Guard Barracks: detail of the entrance.

The Guard Barracks.

(Caserma dei Vigili).

21 Accordingly, it does not appear justified to attribute a religious significant – as hypothesized by J.C. Grenier, for example – to this area of the villa. The proposed location, which the scholar reconstructed with the group of sculptures of Egyptian subjects from Villa Adriana, would allude to the relaunch of the cult of Serapis promoted

by Hadrian and the celebration of the new deity Antinous.

This theory, which had great support, also implies another premise, also to be rejected: that the emperor wanted to represent a “Tour of Egypt”, as defined by Grenier, alluding to his journey to Egypt when his young favourite had died.

In actual fact, as proved by the building stamps seen

in the bricks, the construction of the Canopus dates significantly earlier than 130 AD. The building known as Canopus should rather be interpreted as an evocative representation of an Egyptian environment in an exotic sense, a garden of the Nile destined to banquets, similarly to the channel on the Nile delta, famous for the parties held there.

Caserma dei Vigili ating to the first construction stage of the villa, when it was located marginally to the area of the imperial residence, this building with two levels symmetrically placed around a central courtyard is

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generally identified as the lodgings of the guardsmen who served the villa, based on it similarities with the Firemen’s Barracks in Ostia.

It is undoubtedly a service building, as suggested by the flooring in opus spicatum in the courtyard and the ground-floor rooms and the predominant use of wood for the staircase leading to the upper floors and the flooring of the remaining spaces facing out onto the walkways. It was recently also hypothesized that the building served as the kitchen to the palace and storehouse for foodstuffs, but its position and the presence of a porter’s lodge and latrine on the western side of the building would favour bias towards the current hypothesis.

As it is a freestanding building, though modest, it would seem certain that it was not destined to house the humblest personnel, who lodged in the rooms built into the substruction, like for example at the Cento Camerelle.

Cento Camerelle he levelling of the Pecile (or Poikile) was possible thanks to the formidable system of substructions, the Cento Camerelle, to overcome the drop to the underlying valley, which reaches fifteen metres in height along the western side. As with most of the substructions of the villa, the supporting structure is comprised of a series of adjoining environments, aligned on overlapping floors of up to a maximum of four.

Characterised by identical sizes, the rooms with just one opening at the front, were accessed via external wooden walkways connected by a brick staircase.

The flooring of the upper floors was also made of wood. The simplicity of the wall and floor coverings, the high number of rooms – giving the building its name meaning “one hundred small rooms” – and the fact that they were flanked by a basalt road which, continuing underground under

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The Cento Camerelle and the monumental entrance to Villa Adriana with the road for the use of the emperor and his guests.

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the vestibule, gave direct access to the store rooms of the thermae, all lead to the hypothesis that these were lodgings for the villa’s

humblest servants.

However, it is possible that the series of rooms at road level were used to store goods and products used in

managing the villa, due to the extreme accessibility from the cart road and the presence of very low ceilings in some of the rooms compared to those on the upper levels.

Cortile delle biblioteche ontrary to what you might deduce from the name commonly attributed to this open-air space, it is not the courtyard relating to the libraries, whose facades look onto the opposite side, but rather a broad preexisting peristyle,

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reused in Hadrian’s time with the function of linking up the various buildings: the Imperial Triclinium, Hospitalia, Imperial Palace, Thermae with Heliocaminus, Maritime Theatre and Libraries.

Currently occupied by centuries-old olive trees, the central area was fitted with a garden and possibly also with fountains.

The nymphaeum located on the northern side between the two Libraries, comprising an apsed rectangular environment, with niches along the walls, was already party of the republican residential complex, as we can see from the use of the opus incertum technique in the bricklaying. Upon Hadrian’s wishes, the transformation of the area involved covering the exterior of the walls of the nymphaeum and reinforcing the structure in order to support a cistern, still partially conserved above the vault, which increased the supply of water to the fountain, clearly with the aim of creating new water features.

On the oppositte page: The so-called Antinoeion and on the background the Cento Camerelle.

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Edificio con Peschiera omprised of two adjoining structures, this building features two levels that are linked internally by brick staircases. The main characteristic of the structure is that all the rooms on the upper level facing out onto the NymphaeumStadium are fitted with suspensurae, and thus were heated. This peculiar feature led to the building becoming known as the Winter Palace.

Considering its dominant position, the imposing nature of the rooms, and the rich marble decoration of the floors and walls, that can only be reconstructed nowadays thanks to the marks in the

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The Building with Fish Pond: the so-called Fish Pond.

mortar and/or the holes for the cramps for fastening the slabs, it is hypothesised that this was the actual residence of the emperor, also fit for use in the winter season given the possibility to heat the rooms. The southern wing features a heated room with a cross vault, containing two alcoves, each with an annexed single latrine, which faced out into a garden with a basin of water, originally completed with precious marble coverings which, due to its characteristics, can be identified as the emperor’s bedroom.

The hypothesis was confirmed by recent studies, in collaboration with plant design engineers, which demonstrated how

the heating system was actually a kind of air-conditioning system. During the summer months the service corridors situated under the floors of the rooms used by the emperor could be used as channels to capture the evening breeze, thanks to the vacuum power created by a peripheral oven, in order to freshen the rooms used for sleeping and guarantee more comfortable rest for the emperor.

In actual fact, the construction elements of the structure are the same as those of an imperial palace, equipped with entertainment rooms, including the large room facing out onto the NymphaeumStadium, also offering views of the garden of the Pecile and the countryside, towards Rome.

Alongside the residential building, the so-called Fish Pond, a structure where the emperor would stroll, is comprised of a peristyle with an underlying large cryptoporticus lit by forty splayed windows which surrounds a large rectangular pond.

Sala con Pilastri Dorici his is a large rectangular room, with a big central area paved with bardiglio marble slabs placed diagonally and surrounded by ribbed pillars with metope entablature and Doric triglyphs (hence the name Room with Doric Pillars). Lined with pillars and partly reconstructed in

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The Building with Fish Pond: view from the Pecile.

The Building with Fish Pond: the walls show numerous holes left by cramps for fastening the marble slabs that covered the internal walls.

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Edificio con Tre Esedre he complex building is comprised of two wings, one characterised by a sequence of open-air spaces with water features and the other featuring a series of heated rooms decorated with precious marbles. It is like a sumptuous, monumental vestibule that served the Building with Fish Pond.

The part overlooking the Pecile was the true atrium, accessed through the southern wall of the large portico, which was broken at a large rectangular fountain surrounded by columns and embellished with statues. Beyond this, the view continued towards the large statue within a niche located on the back wall of the central room, which was raised between two windows that faced out onto two octagonal fountains.

With an ingenious device, his own innovative architectural creation, Hadrian overturned the function of the atrium, fully occupied by the

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The Room with Doric Pillars.

the fifties, the corridor features a barrel vault with both floors and walls covered in marble slabs. The type of covering used in the central area is still subject to debate.

The room was faced onto an open space used as a garden and concluding in an apse, with a base for a statue group placed in the centre.

On the opposite side, a corridor paved with mosaics and small rhombus in multiple colours gave the emperor access to the path along the Valley of Tempe, which skirted the eastern side of the villa, to reach Piazza d’Oro to the south, or to head northwards towards the Summer Triclinium.

fountain and thus transformed into a space without room to pass, using the two side corridors as ways of access.

The rectangular room, richly paved in marble and surrounded by a narrow corridor with Corinthian columns, featuring the three exedrae which gave the building its name, was probably topped with a cross vault.

In recent excavations in a room in the wing towards the Building with Fish Pond, a large quantity of marble items in various forms and colours were unearthed. They were used to decorate the walls, as well as the flooring.

The study of the materials and the position of the slabs, based on the holes left by the cramps used to anchor them to the wall, led to the

The Building with Three Exedrae: view from the Pecile.

The Building with Three Exedrae: the precious decoration of a column base from the central room.

The Building with Three Exedrae: detail of one of the exedrae with a fountain in the centre.

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29 reliable hypothesis reconstructing the original decoration of the walls of this room, confirming the extreme quality and sophistication of the interiors fitted out for the emperor.

Grandi Terme hese thermae got their name from both the size of the individual rooms and the expanse of the surface area occupied compared with the other thermae of the villa.

The complexes of both the Small and Large Thermae were linked up on the western side by an underground corridor which gave access to the praefurnia and could be reached directly by serving staff lodging in the area of the Cento Camerelle.

Along this side we find the heated rooms, including the sudatio, circular in shape and with a convex cover with a central opening, which still today maintains all of its majesty, despite the collapse of the front portion where the three large windows opened out to capture the sun’s rays. Then there are a series of tepidaria – heated rooms

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which, in some cases, featured a cavity along the walls made of tubuli or terracotta ducts for the circulation of warm air, in addition to the traditional suspensurae system under the flooring.

These are followed by the caldaria, rooms fitted with basins for warm baths.

The central area is almost entirely occupied by the frigidarium, an ample rectangular room with a cross vault, with two baths opening out onto the room at a lower level which could be

accessed via steps covered in marble.

One of the baths was apsed and the other rectangular and both were used as pools of cold water. Both entrances were framed by high columns in cipollino marble with Ionic capitals in extremely refined white marble.

The apsed bath was originally embellished with statues, as we can see by the presence of niches along the back wall. From the frigidarium there was access to the circular room for the sudatio and also an ample room with a cross vault, which features

a ceiling decorated with stucco with geometrical motifs and medallions with figures, with traces of angular plumes remaining.

On each side of the rectangular bath, a corridor gave access to a room with flooring made of

The Large Thermae: the imposing structures of the largest thermal building of the emperor’s residence in Tivoli.

The Large Thermae: view from above.

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31 white mosaic with a surrounding black band, interpreted by some as a sphaeristerium (a room used to exercise with balls), overlooking the gymnasium. The latter was comprised of a large courtyard in opus spicatum surrounded by a portico with a mosaic flooring, with none of the columns remaining today.

Despite the fact that the complex is imposing due to its monumental character, it does not feature any sumptuous decoration like the villa’s other thermae. With the exception of the large room with its stucco and the adjoining room featuring flooring in opus sectile, the decoration of the coverings is undoubtedly less exclusive. The floors, largely conserved, are covered in white mosaic, possibly bordered with one or two black bands and the walls were covered in plaster rather than marble, characteristics that would suggest use by people of a lower social level than emperor.

Hospitalia hese buildings were destined for mid-range personnel, entourage of the court (e.g., officials of the Pretoria courts, priests).

The complex of the Hospitalia (or guestrooms), along one of the minor sides of the Courtyard of the Libraries, is comprised of an ample corridor covered by white mosaic with small black crosses, with a double series of cubicula (bedrooms), each fitted with three beds. Each room has a flooring with different decoration in black and white mosaic, with complex geometrical or floral designs in the central part and simpler motifs in the alcoves where the beds were positioned.

The central corridor ends in a large room with niches at the back, which document, in the building technique used (opus almost reticulatum), the recycling of preexisting materials belonging to the villa dating to republican times which occupied this part of Hadrian’s residency.

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On the opposite side, a broad staircase descends into the socalled Imperial Triclinium, centred on a large room for coenatio, paved with black and white mosaic with rhombus motifs, framed by two corridors featuring numerous minor rooms. The room concluded towards north with a portico facing onto the exterior, where there must have been a vast garden in ancient times.

From the portico there was access to the Valley of Tempe and the path that led towards Piazza d’Oro and the southern area of the residency.

Ninfeo con Tempio di Venere aised on substructions overlooking the Valley of Tempe, the Nymphaeum was composed of a semicircular level area occupied in the centre by a tholos (a small round temple) covered by marble tiles. On the side facing towards the countryside, a large nymphaeum, built at a lower level, created a theatrical effect for those looking at the building from below.

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Despite the restoration work in the 1950s which involved repositioning certain columns and the related trabeation, the original appearance of the complex is partially compromised by the 18th century interventions for the construction of the current building, the Casino Fede, which was erected on one of the two apses which characterised the Nymphaeum, incorporating and partly destroying the structures.

The work of the famous sculptor Prassitele, the statue of Aphrodite, in the Cnidus type, was unearthed during excavations and is currently exhibited at the Antiquarium of the Canopus, while a cast has been placed inside the small circular temple, where the simulacrum was

The Hospitalia: detail of the black and white mosaic flooring decoration with geometrical and vegetation motifs, different in each room.

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The Temple of Venus.

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probably originally located. In many areas we can still see the remains of the precious flooring in opus sectile, which features a different design for each room of the Nymphaeum.

Ninfeo – Stadio he razing to the ground of the upper levels following the plundering of the large area underlying the so-called Winter Palace suggested its interpretation as a Stadium, solely based on the layout.

In actual fact, it was a green area with a pavilion and fountains, thus its conventional name of Nymphaeum – or Garden-Stadium which is still today

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used to refer to the space.

Directly linked, to the north, to the Pecile, the Thermae with Heliocaminus, as well as, via an underground passageway, the Maritime Theatre and the Room of the Philosophers, the NymphaeumStadium had direct access from the Building with Three Exedrae. Aligned with the central covered room of the latter building, there was a courtyard, flanked by porticos, which could be crossed to reach both the Building with Fish Pond, situated on the opposite side, and the two wings of the NymphaeumStadium.

The northern wing is comprised by a vast

rectangular garden, with three luxurious rooms used by the emperor equipped with a latrine opening onto the garden. Discovered in recent digs, the ample single latrine, originally covered in precious marble and with a vault decorated in stucco, faced onto the peristyle. The garden featured a long rectangular pool and concluded with an arbour supported by pillars with a square foundation in the middle. The layout also included six minor hexagonal fountains placed outside the arbour.

The southern wing was occupied by a pavilion (now destroyed along with almost all of the surrounding area) bordered by columns.

From here you could admire an exedra nymphaeum with steps, featuring a central niche and cascades which created theatrical water effects. The actual location of this raised room, with a view over the monumental fountain and central courtyard, would suggest that it was a place to stay during the summer heat.

The architectural and decorative

characteristics of the room evoke similar examples existing in Rome during Hadrian’s era, such as the Auditorium of Maecenas, transformed into a summer triclinium, perhaps by Tiberius, and also characterised by an apsed layout with a cavea with steps and water features.

Palazzo his is the first nucleus of the imperial residence, built in the area of the previous republican villa, reusing rooms and individual walls from the previous structure, in places still recognisable in the structural fabric of the various buildings. A staircase provided access from the Courtyard of the Libraries. Divided up into various zones, with alternating courtyards and areas

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The Palace: view of the southern part of the peristyle.

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35 used as gardens surrounded by columns and pillars, the Palace follows the common schemes used in domus and villae unlike other sections of the residency. Along the eastern side, we find a vast open-air zone, which maintained its use as a green area dating back to republican times, even though we do not know its original layout.

Easily recognisable in the northern part, it is a rectangular open space, facing onto the pillared courtyard above the republican cryptoportico, characterised by steps and a continuous series of rectangular niches.

The type of the environment suggests its use as a library. The niches in the walls were originally filled with shelves for volumina and the circular niche on the back wall probably contained a statue.

From one of the two adjoining rooms, also overlooking the porticoed courtyard, you enter the Triclinium of the Centaurs, an apsed room, divided up into three naves with two rows of columns.

The particularly rich,

elaborate mosaic flooring included a decoration with figures featuring various subjects: frames with centaurs attacked by wild beasts, now in the Berlin Museums, and frames with deities and masks, which ended up at the Vatican Museums and partly exhibited in the Cabinet of the Masks.

In the central area of the Palace, along the eastern side of the courtyard, we find the cubicula (bedrooms), while a white mosaic flooring with fragments of coloured marbles leads, through a portal, to an open-air area in opus spicatum with two circular fountains.

On the opposite side lies a large semicircular exedra nymphaeum, originally characterised by niches with fountains and steps along which water ran to a pool at the foot of the cavea.

The Summer Triclinium is located at the far western end of the Palace, at the Guards’ Barracks.

This semi-circular room with a vault roof is fitted with niches for statues and fountains. Its use

for social entertainment is proved by the presence of a stone stibadium (a bench used as a reclining bed). Seen up close, the structure type, characterised by water features made up of cascades from which water gushed in a channel built behind the triclinium bed, evokes the layout of the Serapeum. There was a great garden spread out in front of the room.

Pecile nterpreted as a reference to the famous StoĂ Poikile in Athens, the Pecile was a quadriporticus which surrounded a huge garden with a large

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central pool.

Nowadays laurel bushes cut in cylindrical form mark where the original columns stood supporting the sloping roof.

The northern part was comprised of a double portico, with the entire spine wall (9 metres high and 180 metres long) still preserved.

The rounded ends favoured repeating the route around the wall structure,

The Pecile: the bay trees cut into cylinder shapes allude to the columns of the portico that surrounded the large garden.

View of the top of the wall of the northern portico towards the Room of the Philosophers.

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37 enabling long walks.

Repeating the lap a certain number of times meant you could reach the number of steps doctors advised to take after lunch to stay in good health.

From the Pecile there was access, via stairs, to the Room of the Philosophers and the Maritime Theatre and, from the other, to the Building with Three Exedrae, the NymphaeumStadium and the Building with Fish Pond.

Unlike in the present-day situation, where you can both look towards the interior of the villa and out beyond the border of the Pecile, the garden was surrounded by the high walls of the portico with columns, though fitted with large windows that gave a view on the exterior.

Piazza d’Oro he modern name (Golden square) is by itself indicative of the extremely rich architectural and sculptural decoration of the complex. For this very reasons it was systematically plundered of its coverings and often excavated, starting

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from the 16th century, in the often fruitful search for “treasures”.

Numerous famous marble sculptures come from this site, along with architectural elements which ended up in the collections of various foreign museums and collections. The importance and the prestige of this wing of the villa in Hadrian’s time, and also after the death of the emperor, is also underlined by the unearthing of imperial portraits of Hadrian’s wife, Vibia Sabina, of Marcus Aurelius, and of

Caracalla.

The building features a large central garden, run lengthwise by a long rectangular pool and surrounded by a grand pillared portico with semi-columns in brick placed against the walls. The space of the portico, paved with opus sectile, was divided into two naves with columns in alternating cipollino marble and granite.

Along the main sides, two corridors parallel to the portico lead into various rooms.

The building is accessed from the northern side via a

porticoed corridor, open on the eastern side, with a flat roof.

The type of rooms, the presence of water features and rooms facing out onto the surrounding countryside, the exclusive use of opus sectile for all the floors of this building – except for the two rooms at the sides of the vestibule, which also featured a refined multicoloured mosaic in minute tiles (micromosaic) – and, finally, the ample use of marble slab wall coverings, deduced from the numerous holes for the clamps

The Piazza d’Oro: aerial view.

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39 used to fix the slabs, confirm the hypothesis that this area of the villa was closely linked to entertaining functions, and frequented by the emperor and his guests.

Piccole Terme ne of the most characteristic rooms is the octagonal room, with concaveconvex walls which end in a dome that is still partly preserved. Linked to the latter, and also heated, is the circular room, with a hemispheric dome covering and central opening, used for the sudatio, and, on the same side, the

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The Small Thermae: detail of a room ceiling.

The Small Thermae: the western side.

other heated rooms.

The south-western exposure, which is repeated in all of the villa’s thermal complexes, faithfully mirrors the prescriptions dictated by Vitruvius to be able to exploit to the maximum the sun’s rays in the early afternoon, when Romans usually went to the baths.

The collapse of the flooring, due to the suspensurae caving in, led to the discovery of the ducts which enabled the circulation of the hot air coming from the praefurnia, while the plundering of the wall coverings enabled us to see the ascending or vertical ducts to

release the steam, which was then directed to the exterior of the building as it gradually cooled down, replaced by new hot air.

The centre of the complex contains the frigidarium, with two large pools placed opposite each other, covered in white marble and accessed via steps.

The adjoining openair space, partially porticoed, is identified as a gymnasium, according to a layout repeated in the adjacent complex of the Large Thermae.

Despite its name, the Small Thermae is one of the most luxurious buildings in the villa. The profusion and variety of the marble used, which characterised all of the building’s flooring, are exemplified by the remains, still visible in a corridor, and a small room along the eastern side. The wealth and precious nature of the coverings is joined by the unusual architectural solutions, which confirm the imperial use of this thermal complex.

Pretorio nce identified as the lodgings of the praetorians who served in the emperor’s entourage, the building is actually comprised of two separate structures.

The lower part is composed of three overlapping floors of small nonconnecting rooms, with wooden floors supported by travertine marble shelves, accessible via external walkways linked to each other by a brick staircase at the far western side. The architectural system is the exact same as that of the Cento Camerelle and the villa’s other service areas. This leads to suppose that this building was used for activities performed

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The remains of the Praetorium and substructions.

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The Room of the Philosophers: the interior.

41 by the servants.

Again in this case the rooms had a substructive function for the upper section of the complex, a pavilion with various rooms decorated with brick lesenes originally covered in plaster. The type of rooms and the particularly high position of the building means it was part of the noble area of the monumental complex.

Between the Praetorium and the Large Thermae we find a series of environments with walls frescoed with simple bands and geometric patterns, fitted with latrines, and therefore assumed to be lodgings. They were allocated to craftsmen who worked on decorating the villa. Indeed, a large quantity of marble scraps were

found here, in addition to an architectural model in white marble to build a “stadium” which was never constructed.

Sala dei Filosofi his is an imposing apsed room, whose name is due to the presence of seven niches on the back wall where it is hypothesised the statues of seven wise men were placed.

The room was fully covered with marble, as documented by the marks of the slabs on the mortar along the walls and the hole for the cramps used to fix them. Thanks to the brief description by Pirro Ligorio, we can at least partly reconstruct the original appearance.

Both the walls and the floor of the room were covered with porphyry slabs, while cipollino marble was used for columns; the room was probably covered by a vaulted ceiling.

Considered the large size of the room, the persistent use of slabs, the adjacency with the Pecile on one side and the Maritime Theatre on the other, each

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accessible via two entrances, it would appear that the room was used as a waiting room for guests. The niches were perhaps used for a series of statues celebrating the imperial family.

Teatro Greco espite the name, the Greek Theatre is more similar to Roman theatres due to the vaulted substructures, though partly placed against a bank of tuff rock, undoubtedly used as service areas.

We can still perceive the stepped structure of the cavea, divided into two sections by a central staircase, that is partially preserved. At the

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summit we find a small rectangular area, which was recently interpreted as the emperor’s stage.

At the foot of the cavea, we can make out the orchestra, i.e., the space where the chorus would stand for tragedies and comedies, and the proscenium, or stage where the actors performed.

Rectangular in shape, only the lower part of the latter is preserved. There are no remains of the permanent masonry backdrop. This frons scaenae, usually featuring various levels and equipped with numerous doors and windows, was used for theatrical effects, as well as defining the space

The Greek Theatre.

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43 where the play was performed.

The relatively small size of the theatre and its location in a residential complex suggest that it was a court theatre for the emperor and his guests.

Teatro Marittimo his is one of Villa Adriana’s most famous and pictured buildings and it has become one of the symbols of the uniqueness and innovative conception of the architectural layout of the entire residential complex.

The island was accessible via two revolving wooden bridges and, still today, it emits the feeling of a place

T The Maritime Theatre: remains of the portico that surrounded the island; to the fore, the brick bridge that replaced in later times one of the two moveable wooden bridges that gave access to the domus on the island.

where you can retreat to do what you want in peace and quiet.

A circular portico supported by Ionic columns, which is reflected on the water of an ample ring-shaped channel, surrounds the manmade island which contains an actual residence. In actual fact, though small and conditioned by the circular layout, the space was exploited to the maximum to construct all the essential rooms of a dwelling, repeating the typical scheme of a domus, with an atrium, courtyard containing a fountain, portico for strolling, tablinum, cubicula, thermal system and, even, three latrines,

situated in the spare spaces. In addition to the originality of the construction and the refined quality of the architectural decorations, which include marble friezes depicting marine and circus subjects, the extreme functionality of the building to satisfy the emperor’s needs is striking.

Terme con Heliocaminus he villa’s oldest thermal building, erected alongside the area occupied by the republican residency, owes its name to the hypothesis that the

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imposing circular room used for the sudatio was heated solely by the sun’s rays (heliocaminus), while subsequent investigations found a traditional hypocaust system under the flooring.

Covered with a coffered dome with a central opening, the room was fitted with five large windows, now completely collapsed, which faced out onto the NymphaeumStadium.

Behind the room we can recognise the frigidarium, a rectangular space that opens out onto a large swimming pool surrounded by

The Maritime Theatre: the domus on the manmade island.

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The Thermae with Heliocaminus: the sudatio.

The Thermae with Heliocaminus: detail of the vault and the bath of the sudatio.

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a portico with columns and equipped with a second semicircular pool, which provided access to the caldarium via a heated room. The recesses in the walls of this now unfortunately very damaged space contained two rectangular pools for hot baths. The original wall and floor covering of the entire building in marble slabs, with some traces remaining, and the use of just plain mosaics for the flooring of the service corridors or the heated circular room confirm that the complex belonged to the noble zone of the villa.

Terrazza e Padiglione di Tempe his is still today one of the most picturesque zones of the villa due to the dialogue between architecture and landscape, identified with Tempe, the valley of Thessaly, referenced among the areas of Villa Adriana mentioned by Spartianus in the Augustan History.

The terrace contains a three-storey pavilion, with the lower level, called “Stallone�, identified as a nymphaeum, where a fragmentary statue of Hercules was unearthed at the start of the 19th century. An external ramp (retraced by a modern structure) led

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from this level to the intermediary storey, a pavilion with a panoramic view over the surrounding countryside.

Considering the gaudiness of the decoration used in the rooms, the pavilion was not designed as an annex to the Imperial Triclinium, characterised by more modest levels, but as an area to be used by the emperor along the northsouth axis, which linked the Greek Theatre to Piazza d’Oro and the southern area of the villa.

Torre di Roccabruna laced in a marginal position, to the far west of the Rocca Bruna olive grove, the imposing construction, which some believe to have been inspired by the famous Tower at the Academy of Athens, was comprised of a parallelepiped with a square base and a cylindrical structure that was accessed via a ramp on an arched substraction that is still accessible today.

The formidable structure and the presence of marble architectural

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elements with various circumferences suggest that the building originally had numerous levels.

It is plausible that it had the function of panoramic viewpoint that it still has today, facing out onto the Roman countryside as far as Rome itself and beyond; however, it may also have been an astronomic observatory. In addition, we know that the emperor had a passion for astrology, increased

Roccabruna: the building and access ramp to the first floor.

The Tower of Roccabruna.

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47 by the news of the appearance of a new star in the sky after the death of his beloved Antinous.

The interior is composed of a large room with a domed ceiling covered in light blue plaster, once paved in marble and decorated with concentric bands of triangles and a central medallion, with the marks on the mortar remaining. Along a short corridor on the western side we find a narrow splayed window that was built during a second stage. It features a particular inclination upwards which directs the gaze towards a specific area of the sky.

Astronomic studies have suggested that the window frames the star of Antinous, appeared in 130 AD and only occasionally visible.

Vestibolo he Vestibule comprised a building, with only the lower portions of the higher stories remaining, and two gardens, still recognisable due to

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the layout of the flowerbeds, built on both the eastern and western side, with the latter corresponding to the monumental access to the villa.

The entrance was underlined by a broad stairway, with only the back vertical wall conserved, flanked by two niches for statues overlooking a pair of fountains.

Unearthed in recent years, the basalt access road features an unusual characteristic.

Starting from the area corresponding to the junction at the Cento

Camerelle, where two parts of masonry belonging to an arch can be seen, the road forms a circuit shaped like a stadium to make it a one-way system and resolve problems deriving from the simultaneous presence of vehicles arriving and departing on the same stretch of road.

A second basalt road runs in parallel, at a lower level, along the Cento Camerelle, and, in correspondence to the Vestibule, continues

underground into the villa, with a large gallery broken down into various branches; the cryptoportico, illuminated by splayed windows, directly linked the lodgings of the slaves with the corridor of the praefurnia of the Small and Large Thermae, enabling the running of the heating system.

A high wall, with only a few ruins remaining today, blocked the view of service areas from the zone used by the emperor, containing the socalled Antinoeion.

The Vestibule: garden with flowerbeds.

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Index

L’UNESCO

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1999 Villa Adriana inscribed in the World Heritage List

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The Villa

8

The visit

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