House of the Fountains

Published: 2026-10-01
Last modified: 2026-10-02

Dates

150 to 175 CE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

This house is almost entirely excavated, the exception being its north facade, which is still covered by a local lane. It occupies an area of almost 3400 square meters. Its mosaics, published in their entirety, date from the second half of the second century CE, or the Severan era. The construction of the house dates to between 150 and 175 CE. The house has a central peristyle with twenty-six columns. The area of the large open part (12m x 26m) is completely filled with a pool with a maximum depth of 0.90 meters, inside of which the architect installed six very formal flower-beds. On the edges of these, more than 500 water-jets played continually. The unusual design of this peristyle has its only parallel in the Domus Augustana built in Rome for the emperor Domitian by the architect Rabirius. This parallel, pointed out by L. Cremain 1959 in his L'architettura, has been related by other writers, none of whom has found anything similar in Roman domestic architecture in any part of the Empire.

The house has recently been the subject of a monograph by Isabelle Morand in which she undertakes to recover the geometrical and numerical principles used by the architect and to identify astronomical and astrological allusions in the house.

Plans

Plan of the fountains at Conimbriga, Lusitania Province
Fig. 1: Plan of the House of the Fountains.
Credit: Adapted from I. Morand.

Images

Photo of the fountains at Conimbriga, Lusitania Province
Fig. 2: Photo of the House of the Fountain in 2007 with the new roof.

Bibliography

  • Morand, I., La Maison aux jets d'eau de Conimbriga (Boccard, Paris, 2005). (worldcat)

Keywords

Places