Villa Comunale

This is a villa of formal, almost severe dignity. Its layout is a regular rectangle, built of carefully coursed stone blocks, with a flat concrete roof. The principal gesture is the propylaeum: a rectangular portico supported by two rows of fourteen large Doric columns each. Above them runs a trabeation with a plain architrave, a triglyph frieze, and a cornice resting on corbels. At either end, two rectangular blocks anchor the composition. The whole effect is one of sober, classical order, the kind of architectural statement that speaks of civic pride rather than domestic comfort. It is a villa designed to impress, to frame a vista, to suggest the enduring values of an ancient lineage. One imagines the original owners receiving guests here, the procession from carriage to doorway a measured performance beneath the severe gaze of those stone columns.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.