Peristyle-garden on the eastern side of the Republican villa (Fig. 1, n. 18)
Province
Region
Region IV
Location
Location Description
DESCRIPTION
Villa Adriana, erected by emperor Hadrian at the beginning of the II cent. A.D., occupies a vast area of 126 hectares. It was a beautiful estate strategically located near Tivoli and, at the same time, not very far from Rome (WINNEFELD 1895; KÄHLER 1950; AURIGEMMA 1961; RAKOB 1973; BROWN 1964). Prior to the Hadrianic settlement, an ancient villa, dating back to the late republican time, already stood there. Probably it belonged to Hadrian's family and, as a matter of fact, many scholars think that Hadrian chose this estate as the ideal one because he already knew the place and was attached to it (LUGLI 1927). Certainly he preserved and restored the original building and made it the nucleus of his private quarters.
The realization of this magnificent residence must have been a cherished dream of Hadrian, and he must have planned it long before becoming an emperor. This is the only way to explain how the works for its construction began immediately after his election and his return to Rome in 118 A.D. Hadrian died in 138 A.D. when his ideal residence was nearly completed. Nearly, because there was still some work to be done. Some important halls of the Great Baths were not finished, and the model for a Stadium, found among the ruins of his last building-yard in the quarters of the stonecutters (CAPRINO 1996-97; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1992-93, p. 73; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 144-147), was never brought to the unknown place where Hadrian had planned to build it. The Emperor's death put an abrupt end to all activities, and some of the gardens he planned to create, and for which fountains and pavilions had already been built, were never done or, if ever they were completed, seem to have been soon abandoned (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1992-93, pp. 000-000). As a matter of fact after him Villa Adriana was only partially lived in by his successors and was solely used for occasional visits. It became just one of the many country houses pertaining to the imperial praedia. Some of the existing gardens (Fig. 1), the ones nearer to the center of the residence and the monumental ones, were maintained and irrigated up to the end of the Roman Empire, a fact which is now proved by the concentration of extractable lead found in their soil, and which is due to the use of lead pipes for irrigation (FOSS ET ALII 1990; FOSS 1989-90; FOSS 1992; TIMPSON ET ALII 1994; FOSS, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1996). As a consequence of Hadrian's death, some others sites, which he had planned to be attractive and important, got no irrigation at all, thus their soil contains only a minimal quantity of extractable lead, about the same amount that is ordinarily found in modern agricultural fields.
Garden
Peristyle-garden on the eastern side of the Republican villa (Fig. 1, n. 18)
Keywords
- flower gardensAAT:300008135
- nymphaea (garden structures)AAT:300006809
- peristyles (Roman courtyards)AAT:300080971
- porticoesAAT:300004145
Garden Description
This garden was set in the middle of a luxurious peristyle (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 335-337, fig. 116). Unluckily only its western part has been preserved. From what we find now on this side of the area, and from the ancient surveys showing the entire garden still existing in the XVIII cent., we can imagine how it must have looked. It was the kind which we call "hortus conclusus", and it was enclosed by high walls decorated by a series of niches with semicircular ones alternating with square ones (Figg. 51; 52 and 53). Columns stood between them, and were set in the walls in such a way that only half of them emerged, looking as a sequence of half columns. Today only the groove left by them in the masonry, and the remains of the fine opus sectile which, once, covered the portico's soil, allow us to imagine how it was decorated. At the two extremities of the western wall two very small nymphaea set in two narrow niches refreshed the air with their fountains (Fig. 51, a and b ). Apart from this today we can only see three large rooms, opening on the garden, which occupied the northern side of the peristyle. All the rest has been devastated by the agricultural exploitation of the land. Savage plowing and the destruction of both the portico and the enclosure to create ampler space for planting more olive trees and other crops, has caused landslides which have engulfed all the eastern part of this garden. Unluckily here there was no tufa platform to save the garden structure, and this is a pity, because this garden, connected with the Palace, must have been very interesting and the quantity of lead present in its soil shows that it was much cared for (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1994-95, fig. 7).
Plans
Images
Dates
Built between 118 and 138 CE
Excavation Date
unspecified
Bibliography
- H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
- H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
- S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
- F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
- F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
- G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
- C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
- E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
- E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
- J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
- J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
- J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
- M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
- J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)
- E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 335-337, fig. 116. (worldcat)
- E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Ricerca archeologica ed analisi dei terreni: il caso di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 67, 1994-95, fig. 7. (worldcat)