Villa marittima

On the slopes of San Domenica hill, in località Santa Croce, a sprawling Roman maritime villa once commanded the coastline. Covering 7,000 square metres, it was arranged over descending terraces, with a central nucleus and peripheral structures including a now-vanished theatre and a mole.

The seaward level is supported by a series of vaulted substructures, leaning against hypogean chambers from two building phases, late Republican and early Imperial. These rooms, known as camerelle, sustain a floor laid in opus spicatum (herringbone brickwork). A school building has since disturbed the upper level, but here survive a bath complex and residential rooms arranged around a rectangular peristyle. The baths, at the north-western corner, include a circular frigidarium and a rectangular tepidarium with its suspensurae (raised floor for hot air). The peristyle was originally surrounded by ten columns, now lost; its floor is of decorated signinum (terracotta-tiled concrete). Rooms 2-5, at the north-eastern angle, still display their opus reticulatum walls.

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