DRAFT

Atrium House

Contributor: David Ratzan
Published: 2021-04-21
Modified: 2025-06-29

Location

Location Description

This large town on the west bank of the Rhine river was the civitas capital of the Ubii in the first half of the 1st century A.D. It was granted the status of colonia by Claudius in 50 and became the provincial capital in 85.

Garden

Atrium House (Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium)

Keywords

Garden Description

West of the House of Dionysos stood the so-called "atrium house" which covered an area of 1400 sq. m. (Plan 1). It was built around the middle of the 1st century A.D.

Entering from the colonnaded street at the west, one passed through a room reconstructed as an atrium, continuing along a corridor around the tablinum, and arrived at a peristyle courtyard with a semicircular pool. This courtyard, approximately 10 x 13 m. in size, was almost certainly a garden (Plan 1, G). A ground level gutter ran around the edge of the unpaved courtyard. This part of the house remained unchanged until the destruction of the building in the 4th century.

Plans

Plan 1: Plan of the so-called 'atrium house' with an apsidal pool (P) in its garden courtyard (G).
Credit: Adapted from Precht 1971, fig. 2.

Dates

Middle of the first century CE until the fourth century CE

Bibliography

  • G. Precht, "Die Ausgrabungen um den Kölner Dom. Vorbericht über die Untersuchungen," Kölner Jahrbuch 12, 1971:55-56, fig. 2, pl. 7.2. (worldcat)
  • H. Hellenkemper, "Architektur als Beitrag zur Geschichte der CCAA," in H. Temporini, ed., Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt II.4, Berlin, 1974, p. 810, figs. 20-21. (worldcat)

Places

House of Dionysos (Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium)

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