Italica on Gardens of the Roman Empire

Collegium of the Exedra

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

A building just south of the public park has been identified as the seat of a Collegium because of its internal structure and size. It was previously known as 'The House of the Exedra.' It occupies an entire insula, some 4,000 square meters. In its center is a peristyle, which was surrounded by galleries roofed with cross vaulting supported by brick pillars of rectangular cross-section with abutting pilasters making them cruciform in shape. In the center of the peristyle is a pool notable for its curves. It surrounds a circular planter for a tree or flowers.

Maps

Fig. 1: Map of Italica.

Plans

Fig. 2: Plan of the Collegium of the Excedra.

Images

Fig. 3: Photo of the existing site.

Bibliography

Antonio Garcia y Bellido,Colonia aelia augusta Italica, Instituto Español de Arqueologia, (Madrid 1960). (worldcat)
A. Caballos and P. León,ITALICA MMCC: Actas de las Jornadas del 2.200 Aniversario de la Fundación de Itálica, Sevilla, Consejeria de Cultura, (Sevilla 1997).(worldcat)
A. Caballos, J. Marín and J. M. Rodríguez Hielgo, Itálica Arqueológica, Universidad de Sevilla, (Sevilla 1999). 75-76 (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Collegium at Italica (Pleiades:810966696)

House of Hylas

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

This house, with three garden areas, is just east of the Santiponce cemetery. The principal garden, to the south, had a fountain with a rectangular basin in the center. The walls of the basin were covered with mosaics representing fish and molluscs. To the east opened a triclinium, identifiable by the U-shaped design of the floor mosaic. To the north of the principal garden was a large room with a double opening onto the garden. It could well have been either a reception room or a second triclinium.

To the east of this room was a second garden; low walls with the columns of the peristyle resting on them separated the garden from the surrounding galleries. Three of these – on the north, south and west sides – were paved with geometric mosaics; on the east side was a fairly large room with a doorway opening onto the street. Whether or not this was the main entrance will not be clear until the southern corner of the house has been excavated. Two rooms with mosaic floors opened off the south gallery; and two more, off the north gallery. One of the north rooms had a mosaic floor with an emblem showing Hylas carried off by the nymphs. This mosaic gives the house its name and has been removed to the Archaeological Museum in Sevilla.

To the west of the central reception room or triclinium was the third garden, which survives in much worse condition than the eastern one. It also likely had a peristyle and certainly it had a small rectangular pool in the middle.

Maps

Fig. 1: Map of Italica.

Bibliography

Antonio Garcia y Bellido,Colonia aelia augusta Italica, Instituto Español de Arqueologia, (Madrid 1960). (worldcat)
A. Caballos and P. León,ITALICA MMCC: Actas de las Jornadas del 2.200 Aniversario de la Fundación de Itálica, Sevilla, Consejeria de Cultura, (Sevilla 1997).(worldcat)
A. Caballos, J. Marín and J. M. Rodríguez Hielgo, Itálica Arqueológica, Universidad de Sevilla, (Sevilla 1999). 82-83 (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

House of Hylas at Italica (Pleiades:634946753)

House of the Birds

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

This large, typical 'peristyle house' had a courtyard that provided light for all the rooms of the house. The entrance was on the southwest side of the house from the main street leading from the gate where the visitor enters. After a small vestibule and a wide fauces, one came directly into the peristyle garden. Beneath it was a cistern in which rainwater was collected; the water was accessed by means of a well and winch. Water also came from an aqueduct to a fountain on the façade of the house. The peristyle took up a quarter of the total area of the house.

To the left of the entering guest was the reception room with an interesting mosaic of the birds, each bird in its own square. Straight ahead, behind the peristyle, was a large triclinium with a good view of the garden. Moreover, beside the triclinium and presumably visible from it through a window was a small garden with a peristyle of two columns on two sides and four on one side. Most of this garden was occupied by an ornate pool with semicircular extensions at the corners. On the other side of the triclinium was another pool with long steps descending into it suggesting that it was for swimming. It was surrounded by a patio. Opening onto this patio were five rooms with mosaic floors. To the visitor's right on entering the garden from the southwest were found traces of a niche with a mosaic pavement above which had once been the lararium.

Maps

Fig. 1: Map of Italica.

Plans

Fig. 2: Plan of the House of the Birds and other drawings.

Fig. 3: Plan of the House of the Birds.

Images

Fig. 4: Photograph looking over the garden to the northeast.

Fig. 5: Photograph of the small garden to the left and rear of the large peristyle garden.

Fig. 6: Photograph of the small garden to the right and rear of the large peristyle garden.

Fig. 7: Photograph of the small fountain garden.

Bibliography

Antonio Garcia y Bellido,Colonia aelia augusta Italica, Instituto Español de Arqueologia, (Madrid 1960). (worldcat)
A. Caballos and P. León,ITALICA MMCC: Actas de las Jornadas del 2.200 Aniversario de la Fundación de Itálica, Sevilla, Consejeria de Cultura, (Sevilla 1997). (worldcat)
A. Caballos, J. Marín and J. M. Rodríguez Hielgo, Itálica Arqueológica, Universidad de Sevilla, (Sevilla 1999). 70-71. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

House of the Birds at Italica (Pleiades:623258561)

House of the Deep Trench (Casa de Cañada Honda)

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

second century CE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

In late antiquity, a new city wall was built excluding most of the Hadrianic addition. This house, however, remained inside the new wall and was therefore occupied longer and is somewhat better preserved than most other houses of the second century expansion. The street along its south side led to the front steps at the east end of the Trajaneum. The entrance to the house was on the east side from the street. From the entrance, one came into the vestibule, and then to the east portico of the peristyle, which begins at the right side of the figure. The columns of the peristyle were of brick covered with painted stucco. In the center of the courtyard was a pool lined with opus signinum. In its bottom were some round planting pots in which aquatic plants had been rooted. In the middle of this pool, there was a second, smaller pool with a lobed center. In the south gallery was a niche, presumably for a lararium.

Maps

Fig. 1: Map of Italica.

Images

Fig. 2: Photo of the House of the Deep Trench.

Bibliography

Antonio Garcia y Bellido,Colonia aelia augusta Italica, Instituto Español de Arqueologia, (Madrid 1960). (worldcat)
A. Caballos and P. León,ITALICA MMCC: Actas de las Jornadas del 2.200 Aniversario de la Fundación de Itálica, Sevilla, Consejeria de Cultura, (Sevilla 1997).(worldcat)
A. Caballos, J. Marín and J. M. Rodríguez Hielgo, Itálica Arqueológica, Universidad de Sevilla, (Sevilla 1999). 84 (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

House of the Deep Trench at Italica (Pleiades:781581593)

House of the Rhodian Peristyle

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

This house is on the top of a hill and has thus been exposed to more erosion and pillage of stone than most. The entrance was on the east side and led into the peristyle. One of its galleries was higher than the other three. Vitruvius 6.7.3 used the term "Rhodian" to describe such peristyles, and this feature gave the house its modern name (reference). Only two rooms around the courtyard are in good enough condition to be interpreted. One is marked as a triclinium by the shape of its checker-board mosaic. The other had rolls of foliage. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, we may guess that the central courtyard was a garden.

Maps

Fig. 1: Map of Italica.

Images

Fig. 2: Photograph.

Bibliography

Antonio Garcia y Bellido,Colonia aelia augusta Italica, Instituto Español de Arqueologia, (Madrid 1960). (worldcat)
A. Caballos and P. León,ITALICA MMCC: Actas de las Jornadas del 2.200 Aniversario de la Fundación de Itálica, Sevilla, Consejeria de Cultura, (Sevilla 1997).(worldcat)
A. Caballos, J. Marín and J. M. Rodríguez Hielgo, Itálica Arqueológica, Universidad de Sevilla, (Sevilla 1999). 82 (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

House of the Rhodian Peristyle at Italica (Pleiades:932178530)

House of the Triclinium

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

This house, in the area southeast of the House of Hylas, had a peristyle garden that, even in its poor state of preservation, can be theoretically reconstructed, as done by Blázquez and drawn by F. Riat.

Maps

Fig. 1: Map of Italica.

Images

Fig. 2: Reconstruction of garden.

Credit: Drawing by F. Riart (2001, page 33).

Bibliography

Antonio Garcia y Bellido,Colonia aelia augusta Italica, Instituto Español de Arqueologia, (Madrid 1960). (worldcat)
A. Caballos and P. León,ITALICA MMCC: Actas de las Jornadas del 2.200 Aniversario de la Fundación de Itálica, Sevilla, Consejeria de Cultura, (Sevilla 1997).(worldcat)
A. Caballos, J. Marín and J. M. Rodríguez Hielgo, Itálica Arqueológica, Universidad de Sevilla, (Sevilla 1999). (worldcat)
J. M. Blázquez, 'Los jardines en la Hispania Romana,' Historia de los Parques y Jardines en España, Edita Grupo FCC, (Madrid 2001), p. 34, figure p. 32.

Keywords

peristyles (Roman courtyards) (AAT:300080971)

Places

House of the Triclinium at Italica (Pleiades:224658205)

Italica Theater

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

The Italica Theater makes use of the side of a hill to support most of its gradería, as do all known theaters in Spain. It was built in the oldest sector of the city and in a location earlier occupied by a simpler structure. The theater had a portico behind the scaena in which there was a chapel to Isis in the second century CE. The portico with heavy sandstone columns covered in stucco surrounded a grand courtyard. At some point low walls were constructed between the columns, and pedestals for honorific statues were placed on top of the low walls. When the ground level in the courtyard was raised (possibly for the creation of a garden) a wall was built to keep earth from entering the portico.

Maps

Fig. 1: Map of Italica.

Images

Fig. 2: Plan of the Theater.

Credit: Italica MMCC, page 43.

Bibliography

Antonio Garcia y Bellido,Colonia aelia augusta Italica, Instituto Español de Arqueologia, (Madrid 1960). (worldcat)
A. Caballos and P. León,ITALICA MMCC: Actas de las Jornadas del 2.200 Aniversario de la Fundación de Itálica, Sevilla, Consejeria de Cultura, (Sevilla 1997).(worldcat)
A. Caballos, J. Marín and J. M. Rodríguez Hielgo, Itálica Arqueológica, Universidad de Sevilla, (Sevilla 1999). (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Roman theater at Italica (Pleiades:132543925)

Public Park

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

This triangular area, number 19 on the map and on the visitor's left immediately after entering the walled area, is the only public garden space thus far identified in Roman Spain. Its triangular in form is determined by the angle between the city wall and the grid of the streets.

Maps

Fig. 1: Map of Italica.

Images

Fig. 2: Public park photographed looking west towards the gate at the far corner of the triangle.

Bibliography

Antonio Garcia y Bellido,Colonia aelia augusta Italica, Instituto Español de Arqueologia, (Madrid 1960). (worldcat)
A. Caballos and P. León,ITALICA MMCC: Actas de las Jornadas del 2.200 Aniversario de la Fundación de Itálica, Sevilla, Consejeria de Cultura, (Sevilla 1997).(worldcat)
A. Caballos, J. Marín and J. M. Rodríguez Hielgo, Itálica Arqueológica, Universidad de Sevilla, (Sevilla 1999). (worldcat)
J. M. Blázquez, 'Los jardines en la Hispania Romana,' Historia de los Parques y Jardines en España, Edita Grupo FCC, (Madrid 2001), 35. (worldcat)

Keywords

city walls (AAT:300005072)

Places

Public Square at Italica (Pleiades:810966695)