Emporiae on Gardens of the Roman Empire

House 1, or Casa Villanueve

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

Dates

first century BCE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

House Description

This large house, some 4,000 square meters, was long and narrow. (Fig. 2) Various construction phases and uses have been identified. The first phase of the house, which dates to the first century BCE, was built around an atrium. The magnificent and unusually large peristyle garden (23 x 29 m) was added in the second phase in the Augustan era and was reached by a little stairway. The garden included a semicircular stone seat, an open space with a pool, and an ambulacros and below it, a subterranean cryptoportico was located on the northeastern side of the garden. The garden offered a spectacular view of the sea.

Plans

Plan of R1 Casa Villanueve.

Bibliography

A. Balil Iliana, Casa y urbanismo en la España antigua. Casa familiar y vivienda colectiva en la España romana, in Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología, XXXVIII. Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, 1973, pp. 90-100 (worldcat)
X. Aquilué, J. Ruíz de Arbulo, "La jardinería en la época antigua," in Historia de los Parques y Jardines en España. Edita FCC, Madrid, 2001 p. 18-20. (worldcat)

Keywords

House of the L-shaped Cistern

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

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

1924 and 1935

Garden Description

This house, which was also set against the lower edge of the city near the port, was excavated in 1924 and 1935. It had been much altered by burials in late antiquity. Its large cistern yielded a collection of objects from about the time of abandonment: eleven jars of common ceramic, terra sigillata from southern Gaul, ceramics from Africa, glass, toilet articles of bone, metals, coral, and a little domestic altar.

Bibliography

M.A. Basch, Ampurias; historia de la ciudad y guía de las excavaciones. Barcelona, 1951 (worldcat)
A. Balil Iliana, Casa y urbanismo en la España antigua. Casa familiar y vivienda colectiva en la España romana, in Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología, XXXVIII. Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, 1972 (worldcat)
R. Marcet i Barbé and E. Sanmartí, Empuries, Barcelona, 1989 (worldcat)
R. Mar and J. Ruiz de Arbulo, Ampurias romana : historia, arquitectura y arqueología. Sabadell, 1993 (worldcat)
B. Tang, Delos, Carthage, Ampurias, The Housing of Three Mediterranean Trading Centers, Bretschneider, Rome, 2005. (worldcat)

Keywords

House of the Mosaic of Hedykoitos

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

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

This house in the northwest corner of Neapolis backs onto the edge of the city, against the western wall. It had gardens or terraces on its outside edges.

Plans

Plan of the House of the Mosaic of Hedykoitos.

Credit: Adapted from Mar and Ruiz de Arbulo.

Bibliography

M.A. Basch, Ampurias; historia de la ciudad y guía de las excavaciones. Barcelona, 1951 (worldcat)
A. Balil Iliana, Casa y urbanismo en la España antigua. Casa familiar y vivienda colectiva en la España romana, in Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología, XXXVIII. Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, 1972 (worldcat)
R. Marcet i Barbé and E. Sanmartí, Empuries, Barcelona, 1989 (worldcat)
R. Mar and J. Ruiz de Arbulo, Ampurias romana : historia, arquitectura y arqueología. Sabadell, 1993 (worldcat)
B. Tang, Delos, Carthage, Ampurias, The Housing of Three Mediterranean Trading Centers, Bretschneider, Rome, 2005. (worldcat)

Keywords

House of the Peristyle

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

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

This well-known large house, situated in the center of the eastern side of Neapolis, just south of the agora, included a peristyle, which enclosed a planted courtyard. In the peristyle courtyard, archaeologists discovered a cistern with a well, a fountain with an exedra, and other elements typical of a designed garden.

Plans

Plan of the House of the Peristyle.

Bibliography

X. Aquilué et al, Guías del Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya, Empúries. Tarragona, 2000, pp. 59-60 (worldcat)
X. Aquilué, J. Ruíz de Arbulo, "La jardinería en la época antigua," in Historia de los Parques y Jardines en España. Edita Grupo FCC, Madrid, 2001, p. 12. (worldcat)

Keywords

House R2 (Tang AmpR2 and AmpR3)

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

Dates

first century BCE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

House R2, situated south of House R1 in the area of the forum of the Roman City (Fig. 1), is of totally different design and is smaller, but equally luxurious. In describing the phases of its construction, we follow Tang's account (page 126). (Fig. 2) In its first phase, from the first quarter of the first century BCE, the area of House R2 was occupied by two separate, similar houses, designated R2A on the south and R2B on the north. Each had a single, central atrium, which opened onto the cardo along the west side. Behind each house, a hortus extended back and was bounded by an intervallum of the city wall. In the second phase, in the second third of the first century BCE, house R2A expanded, absorbing its own hortus and that of its neighbor, and taking out part of the city wall and extending beyond it to the east. It also acquired the southeastern corner (room [15]) of its neighbor. The old hortus of R2A was replaced by a large garden of 400 square meters enclosed by a peristyle; and a suite of rooms, opening onto the garden, was added on the east on land formerly outside the city wall. Moreover, a row of rooms [42-49] was built behind them and opening to the east. The area beyond them may have been a garden. In the first century CE, in a third phase, the former hortus of House R2B was converted into a peristyle garden [35a] with porticoes on the east, south and west sides. Along the north side were three, precisely symmetric rooms. The south wall of the central one extended in an arc into the garden. This part of the wall probably had windows opening into the garden. Along the west side of the new peristyle garden a bath complex [30-32] was added. A fourth phase at the end of the first or beginning of the second century CE saw a reworking of the eastern side of the house, with a huge room [46] with a triple entrance from the wide portico which now ran along the east side. A large garden extended on to the east a distance not yet determined. The L-shaped portico next to the garden indicated an interest in protecting the garden from the north wind. A small altar with paintings of a serpent and cock was found in the house, possibly in the garden peristyle.

Plans

The Roman or Republican city at Ampurias.

Credit: Adapted from Mar and Ruiiz de Arbulo.

Images

House R2 (Tang R2 and R3) in the Roman City in Ampurias.(The dividing line runs between House R2B in the upper left and R2A; the vertical red line shows the approximate location of the original city wall.)

Credit: Adapted from Tang, where it was adapted from Mar and Ruiz de Arbulo.

Bibliography

X. Aquilué and J. Ruíz de Arbulo, "La jardinería en la época antigua," in Historia de los Parques y Jardines en España. Edita Grupo FCC, Madrid, 2001, p. 12 (worldcat)
A. Balil Iliana, Casa y urbanismo en la España antigua. Casa familiar y vivienda colectiva en la España romana, in Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología, XXXVIII. Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, 1973, 101-102 (worldcat)
R. Mar and J. Ruíz de Arbulo, Ampurias Romana, Editorial Ausa, Sabadell, 1993, 390-397 (worldcat)
E. Ripio Perelló, Ampurias: Itinerary-Guide, Publicaciones del "Instituto de Prehistoria y Arqueología de la Diputación Provincial de Barcelona, Barcelona, 1972. (worldcat)

Keywords

Houses N5 and N7

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

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

These two adjacent houses are typical Tuscan atrium houses, both are against the western city wall, and both have gardens of some 50 square meters at the back of the house (Fig. 1). In Pompeii, Jashemski found many small, non-peristyle gardens in modest homes. Few have been found elsewhere, probably because they were in cities and most ancient cities are under modern ones. This example of two side-by-side is therefore particularly noteworthy. Mar and R. de Arbulo, in their comprehensive volume on Emporiae, give two somewhat different versions of House N5, one on page 366 and one on the foldout map in the pocket at the back of the book. The main differences, however, are in the interpretation of the walls and spaces on the inside of the house and do not affect the interpretation of the garden areas.

Plans

Plan of Houses N7 and N5.

Credit: Adapted from Ampurias Romana, p.366.

Plan of Houses N7 and N6.

Credit: Adapted from Mar and Ruiz de Arbulo.

Bibliography

M.A. Basch, Ampurias; historia de la ciudad y guía de las excavaciones. Barcelona, 1951 (worldcat)
A. Balil Iliana, "Casa y urbanismo en la España antigua. Casa familiar y vivienda colectiva en la España romana," in Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología, XXXVIII. Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, 1972 (worldcat)
R. Marcet i Barbé and E. Sanmartí, Empuries, Barcelona, 1989 (worldcat)
R. Mar and J. Ruiz de Arbulo, Ampurias romana : historia, arquitectura y arqueología. Sabadell, 1993 (worldcat)
B. Tang, Delos, Carthage, Ampurias, The Housing of Three Mediterranean Trading Centers, Bretschneider, Rome, 2005. (worldcat)