HADRIAN’S VILLA

Description

Essentials about Hadrian’s Villa in brief

The Villa Adriana or Hadrian’s Villa was built from 118 to 134 AD about 30 kilometers northeast of Rome as the summer residence and retirement home of the Roman emperor Hadrian. The complex covered at least 125 hectares of built-up area and green spaces, making it the largest and most elaborate palace complex ever built by a Roman emperor. It is the largest (even larger than Pompei) and best preserved such complex from Roman times and, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a tourist attraction.

The complex of Hadrian’s Villa

The complex of Hadrian’s Villa consists of numerous interconnected buildings that fulfilled specific functions: The building with the three exedrae, the nymphaeum stadium and the basin building with which were connected the Quadriporticus, the Small Thermae, the Vestibule and the Official Pavilion.

The symmetry of these interrelated buildings, which were connected through supervised transition points to protect the privacy of the statesman, prove that they all belonged to a single complex that reflected the greatness and importance of the emperor. His love of travel and experience are evidenced by the numerous replicas of monuments and landscapes that had inspired him during his numerous travels.

The gardens of Hadrian’s Villa

In the vast garden area you can admire the Pecile – a large garden with a central swimming pool and surrounded by arcades, used for summer and winter walks -, the Canopus – an elongated water basin with columns and statues all around, converging at a dome-shaped temple standing at the end – and the remains of two thermal baths: the Great and the Small thermal bath.

The latter had an open-air frigidarium and a circular room with a box-shaped dome and five large windows. These buildings, decorated with precious stucco work, were once intended for the imperial family and their guests. The Great thermal bath, on the other hand, was reserved for the staff of the villa. Here there was underfloor heating and an impressive hall used as a sudatarium. The great vault of the central hall deserves special attention, which, despite the collapse of one of its four supports, still keeps itself in perfect balance.

The buildings of Hadrian’s Villa

Among the best preserved buildings of the Villa are the Academy, the Stadium, the Imperial Palace, the Philosopher’s Hall, the Greek Theater and the Golden Square. The latter is a majestic structure that served for representational purposes and was equipped with a large peristilum, which in turn was decorated with fine stucco. Particularly impressive is the wonderful Teatro Marittimo, an island surrounded by a colonnade of Ionic order and a water channel where the emperor used to retire to reflect.

The history of Hadrian’s Villa

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the history of Hadrian’s Villa is unfortunately marked by destruction and looting. After the site was sacked by Totila, king of the Ostrogoths, Hadrian’s Villa degenerated into a marble and brick pit for the nearby episcopal city of Tivoli. It was not until the 15th century that historian Flavio Biondo identified the site as Emperor Hadrian’s Villa, and so Pope Alexander VI Borgia initiated the first excavations.

To satisfy the greed of the nobility and the clergy for historical objects, more excavations followed in the 16th century. Thanks to the architect Pirro Ligorio, who was looking for marble objects to decorate Tivoli’s Villa d’Este and thus carried out further excavations, we now have manuscripts in which his discoveries are recorded, together with legends and everyday representations of the ancient Romans.

Since then, many more excavations have taken place, from which many objects found their way into the Vatican and Capitoline Museums. In the 19th century, Hadrian’s Villa was once again plundered by English aristocrats who took its precious objects back to England as travel trophies. Only since the end of the 19th century has Hadrian’s Villa been owned and protected by the Italian Republic. Since 1999 Villa Adriana has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.