Gallia Belgica on Gardens of the Roman Empire

House of the Arsenal (Maison de l'Arsenal)

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

Dates

second century CE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Place Description

In the valley of the Moselle, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, a former Gallic oppidum on the hill of Ste-Croix, became an urban center in the Augustan period. It had an amphitheater, an aqueduct, several baths, and a sewer network with a large collector.

Garden Description

A large house (40 x 40 m) of the second century covered the site of three adjacent buildings going back to the years 60-80 (Fig 1). It was built around a central courtyard [1] 18 meters on a side, bordered by porticos on the east, south, and west. The courtyard, doubtless treated as a garden, had a rectangular pool that has been partially excavated. On the axis of the pool, on the north side and seemingly opening directly onto the courtyard was a large, 60-square-meter room [2] heated by hypocausts.

Bibliography

Ph. Brunella, D. Meckenbenner, Cl. Lefebvre, P. Thion, Metz, cinq années de recherches archéologiques 1982-1987, Dalph, Gumra, 1990, p.33-36, fig.36. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Divodurum/Mettis (Pleiades:108927)
Metz (inhabited place) (TGN:7008418)

House of the Ram (La Maison au Bélier)

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

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

1992-1993

Place Description

Durocortorum was mentioned by Caesar as the center of the Remi, a Celtic tribe that sided with the Romans against the Belgians. It then became a federated city, nominally independent. Under Augustus, it became the capital of Gallia Belgica. Many vestiges indicate that it was densely settled and unusually extensive. A network of water supply and sewers has been found; an aqueduct brought water from 40 kilometers. The cardo and decumanus are still identifiable today by vestiges of four gates with arches, the northern one still standing; they cardo and decumanus intersect at the present Place Royale. Today, the city is known for its magnificent Gothic cathedral and its fine champagnes.

Garden Description

Excavated in 1992-93 by Agnès Balmelle, this vast house probably covered about 2000 square meters. The date of construction is rather uncertain; it could be as early as the end of the first century or as late as the second half of the second (Fig. 1) The excavations have revealed a portico (A) (20 x 3 m) opening onto an open space which may have been a garden. It was bordered on the southwest by drain which no doubt collected rainwater from the roof and led it away to the northwest. A well (E) was in the north gallery or corridor (B).

Bibliography

A. Balmelle, Reims, Le site de la villa des Capucins (site n°51 454 129) : D.F.S. de sauvegarde urgent, S.R.A. Champagne-Ardenne, 1995. (worldcat)
A. Balmelle, R. Neiss, Les maisons de l'élite à Durocortorum, in Archéologie urbaine à Reims, Bulletin de la société archéologique champenoise, t. 96, 2003, 4, p. 82. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Durocortorum (Pleiades:108945)
Rheims (inhabited place) (TGN:7011060)

House on rue de la Fraternité

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

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

1875-1879

Garden Description

Excavated in 1875-79 in the eastern suburbs of the city (Arras) by A. Ternick, this large house has been uncovered in a roughly elliptical area with axes of 40 and 20 meters. The chronology is uncertain. It was perhaps destroyed by a violent fire (of which there are traces elsewhere in the city) in the second century and not reconstructed. Some walls were decoratively painted; most floors were concrete, but there is some evidence of mosaics. The floor of room [5] (just below room [1] in the plan) had a large slab of black marble in the center in frame with smaller slabs in the corners. The southwest corner of a peristyle and 12 meters along the west side and 10 meters along the south side have been excavated. The galleries had concrete floors and slender Tuscan columns 20 centimeters in diameter and 1.2 meters apart. The walls were painted red. In the center of the peristyle court was a masonry construction considered as an "impluvium" at the time of excavation, but it was quite possibly a pool. If it were a pool, then the area was almost surely in a garden. The house had another interior open court and possible garden [17] of about 6 x 7 meters near a well [25].

Maps

Arras (Pas de Calais), France. Excavations on the House on rue de la Fraternité. 1875-1879.

Bibliography

Alain Jacques, Georges Jelski, "Arras antique, bilan et perspective" in Les villes de la Gaule Belgique au Haut-Empire, Actes du colloque tenu à Saint-Riquier (somme) le 22-23-24 octobre 1982, Revue achéologique de Picardie, p. 124-5. (worldcat)
Delmaire et al., Le Nord-Pas-de-Calais, 62/1, CAG, p. 145-147, fig. 46, plan p. 145. (worldcat)
H. Stern I, 1 p. 101-102. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Nemetacum (Pleiades:109194)
Arras (inhabited place) (TGN:7008468)

House with Garden, rue des Capucins

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

Dates

end of first or early second century CE

Excavation Dates

1987

Place Description

Garden Description

A salvage excavation by F. Berthelot in 1987 revealed part of this poorly preserved house covering some 800 square meters in downtown Reims, about 300 meters from the right bank of the Vesle. (Fig 1) It is near an ancient street which is known for a ten meter stretch. The site was occupied in Julio-Claudian times, but the domus seems to date from the end of the first or beginning of the second century. Its total area must have exceeded 1000 square meters. It was divided into two parts. To the northeast were the rooms for daily life organized around a space (14 x 8 m) that would seem to be an atrium; there was a square (3.5 m) structure in the middle, now worn down beyond recognition, and no other indication of the nature of the space. To the southwest, a space free of construction may have been a garden. It was 12 meters wide and at least 20 meters long; its southwest limit is not known exactly. The northwest wall has buttresses on the outside.

Bibliography

F. Berthelot, L'archéologie urbaine à Reims, in L'archéologie en Champagne-Ardenne, 1960-1990, Bulletin de la société archéologique champenoise, t. 85, 1992, 4, p. 283-287. (worldcat)
A. Balmelle, R. Neiss, Les maisons de l'élite à Durocortorum, in Archéologie urbaine à Reims, Bulletin de la société archéologique champenoise, t. 96, 2003, 4, p. 73. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Durocortorum (Pleiades:108945)
Rheims (inhabited place) (TGN:7011060)

La Villa des Rouaux

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

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

2004

Garden Description

The villa des Rouaux runs along the south side of most of the village of Peltre, which is five kilometers southeast of of Metz. The historical and archaeological context is that of the periphery of Divodurum, principal city of the Mediomatrici, where a dense fabric of Roman rural sites has been found. This villa was 600 meters from the Roman road connecting Metz and Strasbourg.

In 2004, an open air excavation on 2.5 hectares permitted the study of the remains of five buildings organized around a vast rectangular courtyard with the long axis in the northwest-southeast direction. In the southwest-northeast direction, the courtyard was some 70 meters wide. The exact extent in the direction of the long axis remains unknown, but comparison with the complete plans of similar sites suggests that it could have been 200 to 300 meters.

The estate began from a wooden structure built at the end of the Gaulic period [1]. (Numbers refer to plan Fig. 1) It was replaced in the course of the Tiberian period by a building of durable materials. This second phase was then extensively remodeled in the Flavian period to give it an affluent, indeed, a monumental aspect by adding a long portico [2] framed by two pavilions [3]. A bath wing [4] and other touches were added later. In parallel with this evolution of the main edifice, annexes [5] were constructed to define a long rectangular court beginning from the façade of the main building. It was not possible to determine the precise chronology of the construction of this court, but it was, in any event, already in place when the living quarters were enlarged in the next phase.

In this next phase, the space of the estate was structured by building several low, separating walls, perhaps dividing the whole into the classic pars urbana and pars rustica. The pars urbana, of which the central element was the main dwelling, included also surrounding spaces, well defined by the low walls. In front, a pleasure courtyard [6] or garden was developed in harmony with the façade. A pool [7] occupied a good part of the area. Several fragments of statues of white Grecian marble attest the presence of a rich décor with at least two divinities of which one was Harpocrates (Fig. 2 a Hellenized version of the child Horus).

On either side of the main dwelling were smaller courtyards with technical functions. The one on the west [8] encloses the bath wing, which seems to have been added after the expansion of the main dwelling. The courtyard on the east [9] housed various hydraulic equipment, including buried conduits and a distribution box, necessary for water supply to the pool and the bath wing. Back (north) of the main house was a large area 140 meters wide [10] and of unknown extension to the north which may have been an orchard or a park.

The pars rustica was organized on either side of a vast court [11], of which the perspective was blocked by the succession of buildings on the west. In effect, the desire for symmetry expressed in the garden with the pool was somewhat thwarted by this alignment of the pre-existing annexes. A gateway [12] in the middle of the low wall which separates this area from the garden with the pool allowed access to this space [11], which was very much off the axis of the main dwelling. In the interior of the courtyard [11], the only structures found were the remains of a hexagonal foundation [13] around a quadrangular trench. This combination has been interpreted as a funeral enclosure, possibly that of owner who gave the villa its luxurious character. On either side of [11], the annexes were about ten meters back from the fencing walls.

These observations suggest that this large court [11] was not used for agricultural purposes but is rather to be interpreted as a park. In the second half of the third century, the estate declined and became a quarry for building materials. Later, some parts of the ruins were reoccupied until the middle of the fifth century, as indicated by hasty repairs made with salvaged pieces or light materials.

Bibliography

J.-D. Laffite, A. Bressoud, M. Mondy, A. Lefèbvre, M. Feller, I. Dechanez-Clerc, J.-J. Bigot, É. Rouger, LIÉHON (Moselle) « Larry » - Aéroport Metz-Nancy Lorraine, rapport de fouille préventive 2003, INRAP GEN/ SRA DRAC Lorraine, Metz, 2005, 9 vol., 1378 p., 207 figures, 61 plates. (worldcat) <!--TODO: I don't think this is the right biography, but there's nothing else in the doc Gallia Belgica 6-2010.doc)>

Keywords

Places

Divodurum/Mettis (Pleiades:108927)
Peltre (inhabited place) (TGN:7616302)
Metz (inhabited place) (TGN:7008418)

Rural Villa

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

Dates

third century CE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

The villa of this rural estate of the third century and its grounds are the only parts of the complex which have been investigated (Fig. 1). The farm lay about 40 km south of Trier on a gentle slope above the Moselle river. The villa is of the winged corridor type with a facade of over 45 meters in length, taking up an area of 4200 square meters. In the villa were two peristyle courtyards, but both were paved with slabs of red sandstone rather than having been laid out as gardens.

Parks were laid out on the grounds of the villa. A peristyle corridor 250 meters in length and 8.80 meters in width led from the villa to the bath building on the southwest, although it was not directly connected to either building. From the open-sided corridor one could enjoy the view of the almost certainly landscaped grounds, and of the terrain sloping down to the river. It is assumed that there was another peristyle corridor on the northeast. A grotto on the grounds of the villa belonged to the park.

Bibliography

P. Steiner, Die römische Villa von Nennig, Saarbrücken, 1955. (worldcat)
H. Mylius, "Die Rekonstruktion der römischen Villen von Nennig und Fliessem," Bonner Jahrbuch 129, 1924: 110-120, fig. 1, pls. 4-5. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Nennig (Pleiades:109198)
Nennig (inhabited place) (TGN:5001900)

Rural Villa in Veirherrenborn

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

Dates

early second century CE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

The house stood in the middle of a farm complex 75 meters wide and 120 meters long. It dates to the early second century. The house (A on the plan, Fig. 1) is of the winged corridor type, measuring 19.30 x 22.40 meters.

On the west and east, in front of and behind the house, were open courtyards enclosed by a wall. The western courtyard has been interpreted as a garden (G on plan); the eastern one may have been a paddock.

Bibliography

H. Cüppers, ed., Die Römer in Rheinland-Pfalz, Stuttgart, 1990, p. 653, fig. 594. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Vierherrenborn (TGN:7077028)

Rural Villa near Echternach

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

Dates

60s CE to late fourth or early fifth century CE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

This villa of a farm near Echternach was of the winged corridor type with sumptuous interior marble paneling, mosaics and wall paintings (Fig. 1). Originally constructed in the 60s of the first century CE, the villa was enlarged until it covered an area of 8928 square meters in the third century.

The protruding wings of the house on either side of the main entrance on the north framed a large, open courtyard, 29 x 74 meters in size, possibly a garden (G on plan). In the middle of this courtyard was a masonry pool of grand proportions (14.50 x 60 meters). In the middle of this stone-paved pool was a square base which once supported a statue, a sculptural group or perhaps a crater. The pool was retained as a decorative element throughout all the alterations of the estate until the destruction of the farm in the late 4th or early fifth century.

The southern peristyle courtyard (16.50 x 17 meters) within the house itself was initially designed as part of the bath complex in this wing, and in this courtyard was a swimming pool or natatio. Soon after the building of the house, the pool was filled in and the courtyard transformed into a garden (G on plan).

There was a garden from the very beginning in the western peristyle courtyard, as witnessed by the presence of garden soil (G on plan). This garden was later abandoned in the early second century.

Bibliography

J. Metzler, J. Zimmer and L. Bakker, Ausgrabungen in Echternach, Luxembourg, 1981. (worldcat)
P. Van Ossel, Établissements ruraux de l'Antiquité tardive dans le nord de la Gaule, Paris, 1992, pp. 350-353, figs. 145-146. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Epternacus (Pleiades:108955)
Echternach (inhabited place) (TGN:7012312)

Rural Villa near Fliessem

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

Dates

second century CE to ca. 400 CE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

This villa rustica was built on the slope of a hill about 30 kilometers north of Colonia Augusta Treverorum, close to the Roman road from Trier to Cologne, now B 51/E29. It is a kilometer or two south of the village of Fliessem. The original core of the villa is of second century date, but the building was enlarged considerably in the third century to take up an area of 4225 square meters (Fig. 1). It was occupied until around CE 400. The house (A on plan) occupied a position at the eastern end of the property, and in its final state it measured 60 x 60 meters and had 66 rooms, many of them decorated with mosaic floors. On the northern and southern sides were porticoes, and from the southern portico with its pavilions a view of the valley below was afforded.

The entrance to the house on the west was flanked by two protruding pavilions framing an open courtyard. Immediately to the west of this was another open courtyard enclosed by a wall. It might be expected, even if the evidence is sparse, that a garden or park was laid out at least in front of the entrance at the west (G on plan).

Bibliography

H. Mylius, "Die Rekonstruktion der römischen Villen von Nennig und Fliessem," Bonner Jahrbuch 129, 1924:120-128, fig. 3, pl. 7. (worldcat)
E. M. Wightman, Roman Trier and the Treveri, London, 1970, pp. 143-145, fig. 15 (worldcat)
H. Cüppers, ed., Die Römer in Rheinland-Pfalz, Stuttgart, 1990, pp. 367-371, figs. 264-265. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Col. Augusta Treverorum (Pleiades:108894)
Trier (inhabited place) (TGN:7004447)

Rural Villa near Weitersbach

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

Dates

end of first to late fourth century CE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

The enclosed farm compound measured 79 x 125/132 meters (less than one hectare). In the middle of the yard stood a house (A on plan) of the winged corridor type dating to the period between the end of the 1st and the later fourth century. (Fig. 1)

Southeast of the house was an open area of 900 square meters, enclosed by a wall. There were no traces of any building activity within this enclosure, leading the excavators to interpret the area as a utilitarian (vegetable) garden (G on plan).

Bibliography

E. Gose, "Jahresbericht", Trierer Zeitschrift 24/26, 1956-58: 511-525, figs. 106, 113. (worldcat)
H. Cüppers, ed., Die Römer in Rheinland-Pfalz, Stuttgart, 1990, pp. 663-665, fig. 606. (worldcat)
P. Van Ossel, Établissements ruraux de l'Antiquité tardive dans le nord de la Gaule, Paris, 1992, pp. 273-276, fig. 82. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Weitersbach (inhabited place) (TGN:7084427)

Rural Villa near Welschbillig

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

Dates

ca. 364 to 383 CE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

This palatial villa, which has been interpreted as an imperial summer palace, lay within the confines of an imperial domain about 12 km. northwest of Colonia Augusta Treverorum. It was built during the reign of the emperor Valentinian I (364-375) or Gratian (367-383) who resided in the capital. Very little remains of the actual villa, although foundation walls of other buildings and a possible portico have been found.

The grounds of the villa were almost certainly landscaped in some form, as is suggested by a large decorative pool that may have been a decorative focus in a garden. It measured 18 x 60 meters and had three symmetrically arranged apses on the long sides. (Fig. 1) The walls of the pool were constructed of cut stone blocks and the bottom was paved with stone slabs. On top of the edges of the pool was an open-worked stone balustrade pierced at regular intervals by 112 limestone herms. The herms represent gods, Greeks, Romans, philosophers, generals and idealized figures such as putti, as well as Phrygians, Nubians and Germans. These were thrown into the pool in the 5th century, landing perhaps on layers of sediment at the bottom. As a result, the herms, of which 71 were retrieved in excavations, are in excellent condition. At the northern end of the pool was a rectangular building through which ran a drain from the pool. (Fig. 2, View of Model)

Bibliography

H. Wrede, Die spätantike Hermengalerie von Welschbillig. Römisch-Germanische Forschungen 32, Berlin, 1972 (worldcat)
H. Cüppers, ed., Die Römer in Rheinland-Pfalz, Stuttgart, 1990, pp. 665-667, figs. 607-609. (worldcat)
P. Van Ossel, Établissements ruraux de l'Antiquité tardive dans le nord de la Gaule, Paris, 1992, pp. 277-278, fig. 90. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Roman Villa at Welschbillig (Pleiades:109456)
Welschbillig (inhabited place) (TGN:1041735)

The House aux Fleurons (boulevard de la Paix)

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

Dates

end of first century CE to third century CE

Excavation Dates

1977

Place Description

Garden Description

Known since 1840 because of the discovery of important mosaics, this house in the eastern part of the Roman town was explored in an emergency excavation in 1977 under the direction of Robert Neiss. Nearly 650 square meters have been unearthed, and the total size must have been at least 1000 square meters. (Fig. 1)The site was occupied by a modest structure until the end of the first century, when the new house was built. Occupation continued into the third century.

Along the north side runs a secondary street following the orientation of the town in Augustan times. Along this street, in the northern part of the house, a series of rooms with mosaics were found. On the south side, the space A (about 30 x 14 m) was probably a garden. The central part, surrounded on three sides by porticos, had two wide trenches (a) cut into the chalk and filled with clay, a strong indication of a garden. The trenches seem to be connected on the south side, and the south wall seems to be the limit of the parcel.

Bibliography

Ch. Loriquet, La mosaïque des Promenades et autres trouvées à Reims, Reims, 1862 (worldcat)
D.R.A.H..A., La Bourse du Travail à Reims, Bulletin de la société archéologique champenoise, n°4, 1977, p. 77-79. (worldcat)
R. Neiss, La structure urbaine de Reims antique et son évolution du Ier au IIIe siècle après J.-C. Les villes de la Gaule Belgique au Haut-Empire, in: Actes du colloque tenu à Saint-Riquier (Somme). Revue archéologique de Picardie, n°3-4, 1984, p. 171-191, (worldcat)
A. Balmelle, R. Neiss, Les maisons de l'élite à Durocortorum, in Archéologie urbaine à Reims, Bulletin de la société archéologique champenoise, t. 96, 2003, 4, p. 74. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Durocortorum (Pleiades:108945)
Rheims (inhabited place) (TGN:7011060)

Urban House East of Forum

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

Dates

second century CE to last decade of third century CE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Place Description

In this city on the Moselle river there were many luxurious houses and palaces of the type with peristyle courtyards, particularly in the late Roman period when Trier was the imperial residence in the West. Unfortunately, very few complete plans of these buildings exist, and almost nothing is known about the presence or absence of gardens within them.

Garden Description

In only one of the excavated houses of the second and third century in two insulae east of the forum beneath the imperial baths can gardens be shown to have existed. This house was demolished when the imperial baths were erected in the last decade of the third century. It seems to have occupied an entire insula measuring 55 x 100 meters. (Fig. 1). An atrium (A on plan) was built in the west wing of the building in the first half of the second century. The atrium was later transformed into a garden with planting beds and a pool. Around the middle of the third century this garden was abandoned. The house also boasted a large peristyle courtyard on the east which may have been planted (G on plan), but for a garden there is no direct archaeological evidence.

Bibliography

W. Reusch, "Wandmalereien und Mosaikboden eines Peristylhauses im Bereich der Trierer Kaiserthermen," Trierer Zeitschrift 29, 1966:187-235. (worldcat)
W. Reusch, "Die Ausgrabungen im Westteil der Trierer Kaiserthermen", Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission 51-52, 1970-71: 252-270, 281, Beilage 30. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Col. Augusta Treverorum (Pleiades:108894)
Trier (inhabited place) (TGN:7004447)

Villa Borg

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

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

1980s

Garden Description

The villa of Borg is situated in a forest between the villages Borg and Oberleuken, community of Perl (Landkreis Merzig-Wadern), in the border-region Germany - Luxembourg - France. The huge villa complex is situated in a densely occupied Roman settlement region on the fertile plateaus between the river valleys of Saar and Mosel. Pars urbana and pars rustica covered an area of about 7.5 hectare. The villa was built in the direct vicinity of the Roman road from Metz to Trier (Augusta Treverorum), which was part of the far-distance connection between Marseille and Cologne.

Recent archaeological excavations have shown traces of an earlier rural settlement below the foundations of the villa. This first occupation can be dated to late Celtic times or directly to the beginning of Roman occupation. In the second quarter of the 1st century CE it was followed by a possibly two-angled timber-framed building of 17.80 x 10.40 m, which is interpreted as proto-villa. The construction of the later stone-buildings took place around 50 CE. The main period of the villa lasted from the end of the 1st to the late 3rd century CE. From the middle of the 4th century CE (Plan, Fig 1)onwards only some parts of the villa were still occupied. It was completely abandoned by the end of the 4th century CE.

Since 1987, the eastern part of the site, the pars urbana, was completely excavated. The main building, a porticus villa, type Bollendorf, was completely reconstructed, exactly on top of the Roman foundations. The pars rustica in the western part, covering an area of 400 x 150 m, is not yet excavated. Geophysical measurements gave evidence of two parallel rows of at least 14 small buildings; possible used for storage and handicraft activities.

Unfortunately only a few architectural elements, like the two water basins (Fig 2), gave hints to the Roman garden architecture. The huge water basin of 10 x 30 m and the two-angled central porticus building of the villa were enclosing a yard, which was most probably laid out as a representative Roman garden in Mediterranean style. A few remaining fragments of stone sculptures point to a representative garden architecture. Additionally, archaeobotanical investigations gave evidence of agricultural activities connected with the villa. A waste pit excavated in the inner yard of the pars urbana revealed carbonised waste of processing spelt and einkorn, probably grown as maslin. Further cultivated crops were emmer, naked wheat, hulled barley and the pulses lentil, pea and Celtic bean. Evidence of fruit tree cultivation is scarce. Only pear and a fragment of an undetermined cultivated Prunoideae fruitstone were recorded.

In the year 2000, the reconstructed main building of the villa with its bath, now occupying a small museum, was completed by the reconstruction of a representative Roman garden. This garden is situated between the reconstructed central building and the huge Roman water basin. In the following it was completed by a vegetable garden, a rose garden and a small vineyard, presenting Roman horticulture to the public. The reconstruction was part of the European Union's Interreg-II project "gardens without borders". Concerning the poor local evidence from the recent excavations the reconstruction was mainly based on the better evidence of Roman gardens from villas in Italy and France.

Bibliography

J. Brück, "Die villa von Borg", in: Der Kreis Merzig-Wadern und die Mosel zwischen Nennig und Metz. Führer zu archäologischen Denkmälern in Deutschland 24 (Stuttgart 1992) 112-119. (worldcat)
R. Gleser & A. Miron, Romanisierungsforschung im Saarland. Archäologische Informationen 18, 1995, 213-215. (worldcat)
A. Miron (Hrsg.), Das Badegebäude der römischen Villa von Borg (Merzig 1997). (worldcat)
J. Wiethold, "Archäobotanische Aspekte der 'Romanisierung' in Südwestdeutschland: Bemerkungen zur Unkrautflora römerzeitlicher Dinkeläcker", in: A. Müller-Karpe, H. Brandt, H. Jöns, D. Krauße & A. Wigg (eds.), Studien zur Archäologie der Kelten und Römer in Mittel- und Westeuropa. Alfred Haffner zum 60 Geburtstag gewidmet. Internationale Archäologie - Studia Honoraria 4 (Rahden/Westfalen 1998) 531-551. (worldcat)
M. Frey, "Die römische villa von Borg. Ein reiches Landgut mit vorrömischer Tradition", in: A. Haffner & S. Schnurbein (eds.), Kelten, Germanen und Römer im Mittelgebirgsraum zwischen Luxemburg und Thüringen. Akten des Internationalen Kolloquiums zum DFG-Schwerpunktprogramm "Romanisierung" in Trier vom 28. bis 30. September 1998. Kolloquien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte 5 (Bonn 2000) 41-50. (worldcat)
J. Wiethold, "Kontinuität und Wandel in der landwirtschaftlichen Produktion und Nahrungsmittelversorgung zwischen Spätlatènezeit und gallo-römischer Epoche. Archäobotanische Analysen in der Großvillenanlage von Borg, Krs. Merzig-Wadern", in: A. Haffner & S. Schnurbein (eds.), Kelten, Germanen und Römer im Mittelgebirgsraum zwischen Luxemburg und Thüringen. Akten des Internationalen Kolloquiums zum DFG-Schwerpunktprogramm "Romanisierung" in Trier vom 28. bis 30. September 1998. Kolloquien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte 5 (Bonn 2000) 147-159. (worldcat)
B. Birkenhagen, Die Römische Villa Borg. Ein Begleiter durch die Anlage (Merzig 2004).(worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Borg Roman villa (Pleiades:272861914)
Borg (inhabited place) (TGN:7212307)

Villa de Larry

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

Dates

first to fourth century CE

Excavation Dates

2003; 2006-2007

Garden Description

The site is on the Lorraine plateau, which has been densely occupied and cultivated since protohistoric times. The villa was on the divide between the headwaters of the Seille on the west and the Neid on the east and only 2.3 kilometers from the Roman road connecting Metz, Sarrebourg, and Strasbourg. The combination of the pars urbana and the pars rustica occupied more than 7 hectares, and the pars rustica alone had at least twelve buildings. The site of pars urbana now lies under the airport runway, so all vestiges were destroyed in the construction. The pars rustica lies outside the airport property in cultivated fields. It remains buried but intact and has been (2006-2007) the subject of further investigation by ground-penetrating radar and other techniques not requiring excavation.

In 2003, in connection with the extension of the north runway of the Metz-Nancy-Lorraine airport, the excavation of the pars urbana within the perimeter of the airport made it possible to trace the evolution of this aristocratic villa. The site was occupied since the beginning of the first century, at first by a wooden building. At the end of the first century, the residence was still only a simple villa with a masonry portico and lateral pavilions covering, in all, about 520 square meters. Nearby were the farm buildings.

At its architectural apogee between 190 and 250, the buildings of the pars urbana enclosed about 5000 square meters. The residential habitable areas - the great rooms, the lateral pavilions, the galleries, the triclinia, the balnea major and minor, the bedrooms and service areas were arranged around the central courtyard and garden areas. The buildings covered a total of more than 1.3 hectares. The rest, more than two-thirds of the pars urbana, were courtyards and gardens.

For ease of description, we will assume that the top of the plan (Fig. 1) is the north side, though in fact it is the northwest side. In these terms, the north side of the central courtyard was open for just over half its length onto a 90-meter-long courtyard or garden along the north side of the pars urbana. This court was bordered on the north by a closed gallery which marked the separation from the pars rustica. In the southeast corner of this large court, in an area of 92 square meters (shaded green and marked with a V and a 1 in Fig. 1), there were discovered definite traces of a pleasure garden, namely, planting trenches and pits for a hedge or row of bushes which marked its limits (Fig. 2). The planting trenches were preserved to a depth of 5 to 15 centimeters. The soil in them was a gray sandy silt, while surrounding soil was the geological clay of the area. The row of bushes was placed parallel to the large, heated reception room just to the south. Detail and a possible hypothetical reconstruction of the layout of this garden are shown in Fig. 3. Moreover, traces of five pairs of post holes in the soil were discovered east of the inner façade of the entry porch and in alignment with it. They may be related to a pergola (8.4 x 2 m) (Fig. 1 and detail in Fig. 4).

Two walkways, now much despoiled of their stones, formed a T (indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 1) and connected this entry porch to the two lateral pavilions which framed the forecourt. Likewise, a large court bordered the western part of the west wing and northwest pavilion. It was enclosed by a wall on the south and west defining an area of 3265 square meters. Erosion of the ancient surface of the soil, however, destroyed any other horticultural traces. In all, the three large courtyards, enclosed or bordered by residential buildings covered 7,100 square meters.

In the eastern part of the pars urbana, an intermediary enclosed space (shaded green and marked with a V and a 3 in Fig. 1) between the northeast pavilion and the gallery of the balneum, was occupied by a garden with a surface of 196 square meters, where two trees were planted in the center. A second interior court (shaded green and marked with a V and a 4 in Fig.1), occupied 504 square meters in the southeast corner of the villa between the southern apartments and the balneum. A deep subterranean structure about five or six meters in diameter may have been a cistern or pool. These two interior gardens related to the baths covered 700 square meters. Finally, the bottom of a horticultural pot was discovered under the porch of the south facade of the villa.

Traces of wooden pipes with iron hoops were discovered running underground across the large central courtyard and to the south of the pars urbana to bring water from capped springs to the central pool, to the baths, and almost certainly to fountains that were not found. A corresponding network of drains and sewers was also found. Just east of the entry porch was a canal for draining off the rainwater from the roof of the entry porch.

In the fourth century, the villa was in large part ruined; the pools were filled in, the courtyards in the center and to the north occupied by wooden structures erected from the end of the fourth century to the sixth century.

The Villa de Larry site is an example of the villa of a country estate where the gardens integrated the architecture of the buildings. The art of gardening bore witness to the will of the builders and proprietors to master nature and the plant world, imposing on them harmonious and regular forms with plans inspired by the imperial prototypes of Rome.

Bibliography

J.-D. Laffite, A. Bressoud, M. Mondy, A. Lefèbvre, M. Feller, I. Dechanez-Clerc, J.-J. Bigot, É. Rouger, LIÉHON (Moselle) «Larry» Aéroport Metz-Nancy Lorraine, rapport de fouille préventive 2003, INRAP GEN/ SRA DRAC Lorraine, Metz, 2005, 9 vol., 1378 p., 207 figures, 61 plates. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Divodurum/Mettis (Pleiades:108927)
Metz (inhabited place) (TGN:7008418)

Villa Rustica near Bad Dürkheim

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

Dates

early second century CE to fifth century CE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

The stone structures of this villa rustica, dating to the early second century, replaced earlier timber buildings. With the addition of an annex on the east in the early fourth century, the facade of the house acquired a length of 104 meters. The farm was occupied until the early fifth century.

The main residence is a villa of the winged corridor type (BEL 13.1.1). Two protruding wings on either wide of the entrance on the south framed an open courtyard which may have been planted (G on plan). Behind the house at the north were two more wings framing a second open courtyard (G on plan). This area, possibly a garden, was bordered on the north by a low wall.

Bibliography

H. Cüppers, ed., Die Römer in Rheinland-Pfalz, Stuttgart, 1990, pp. 317-319, figs. 156, 199. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Bad Dürkheim (Pleiades:108784)
Bad Dürkheim (inhabited place) (TGN:7012953)