DRAFT

Aix, Jardins de Grassi, House with the large peristyle

Contributor: Yichen Liu
Published: 2021-04-21
Modified: 2025-06-29

Province

Province Description

Ancient Roman colony (founded 118 BCE) and senatorial province located in modern southern France, along the Mediterranean. This province had stronger cultural and political ties to Italy than the rest of Gaul.

Location

aix-en-provence
aix-en-provence (Pleiades)

Sublocation

Aix, Jardins de Grassi, House with the large peristyle

House

Aix, Jardins de Grassi, House with the large peristyle

Keywords

House Description

This luxurious residence wrapped around a large (15 x 18 m) peristyle [1] with galleries 3 to 4 meters wide. The center was no doubt a garden. A vast reception room [15], paved with an opus sectile, looked out onto the central axis of the garden. It was flanked by two other handsome rooms; the one to the west [18] also had a marble floor. An exedra [5] with an opus sectile floor opened in the center of the east wing over a wide threshold, embellished on each side by a pilaster and column. Room 14, also with a marble floor, is more withdrawn. The principal reception room opened onto another open space [1], thought to have been 22 meters long by 7 meters wide, delimited at ground level by a stone border. Perhaps treated as a garden, it was made pleasant by two stone basins with water jets placed on the axis of the rooms [18] and [16]. The view was rounded off by the large flattened semicircle of the back (north) wall of the garden.

Plans

Fig.1 plan of the House with the Large peristyle
Fig 1. House with the large peristyle
Fig.2 Plan of the House with the Large peristyle
Fig 2. House with the large peristyle

Bibliography

  1. Maison 1996, t. II,, p. 30-31

  2. Atlas De Provence-Côte D'azur: 1. Bruxelles: ACTES, 1974, P 62-64 and P261-277.worldcat

Places

Explore the places containing this garden: