DRAFT

The Garden of the Piazza d'Oro (Fig. 1, n. 20)

Author: Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti

Contributor: Joshua Rosenheim

Permalink: https://roman-gardens.github.io/test-drafts/id/a72a260f9e/

Published: 2021-04-21

Modified: 2025-06-29

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

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

The Garden of the Piazza d'Oro (Fig. 1, n. 20)\

Piazza d'Oro at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 379689233

Keywords

Garden Description

The garden of the Piazza d'Oro is one of the most prestigious and interesting of Villa Adriana. It consists of a peristyle garden set amid a double portico and surrounded by some of the most elegant buildings of this imperial residence (Figg. 54 and 55). The garden, which occupies the central part of the peristyle, was probed in 1987. Afterwards, in 1988, with the sponsorship of Dumbarton Oaks and the help of the Latium Superintendence, it was partially excavated (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1987, pp. 180-181, figs. 29-34; JASHEMSKI, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1987-88, pp. 162-169, figs. 16-22; JASHEMSKI, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1992, pp. 585-595, figs. 8-17; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1998, pp. 370-374, figs. 4-8; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 339-354, figs. 117-126). Here the nearly surfacing platform of tufa was a great help to find where the flowerbeds were and how the garden was arranged (Fig. 56). The first thing that was discovered was a double line of deep holes, m 1.80 long, 0.90 wide and 1.20 deep which circled all the area (Fig. 56, f). Their size proved that they were meant for trees, but which ones? As we didn't find any seeds, pollens or roots to help us in identifying them, we must rely on what was written in ancient texts. From Pliny we know that in their gardens Romans used cypresses (PLIN. nat. 16.60.139-141; PLIN. epist. 5.6.16-17), plane trees (PLIN. nat. 12.3-5), pine trees, pomegranates, oleanders, laurels (PLIN. nat. 15.49.197) and, at the end of the Republic, even lemon trees (PLIN. nat. 1.15-16; see JASHEMSKI 1979, pp. 77-79).

These indications have been confirmed by the studies that Prof. Jashemski carried out in Pompeii, Herculaneum and other places (JASHEMSKI 1979, passim; 1993, passim). Of all the trees listed by the great naturalist we must immediately discard cypresses, as the ones that Pliny the Younger described in the hippodrome-garden of his Tuscany villa (PLIN. epist. 5.6.32-40). Also if those trees could be cut in shapes suited to the garden's design by topiary artists and could be very decorative, their foliage begins at a very low level and the trees tend to be very high, thus they are very good for fencing an enclosure, but here, at the Piazza d'Oro, where the garden was planned to be seen from the surrounding porticoes, they would have completely hidden it. Thereupon we must revert to more convenient trees or bushes, like laurels, which grow very well in the area and whose foliage could be kept very high, in such a way that the trees would not hide the view, or like the ever present box tree (PLIN. nat. 16.28.70) which could be cut in conveniently low green hedges. Flowering bushes and, maybe, Pliny's violets (PLIN. nat. 21.14 and 47) set in decorative designs could have grown in the central part of the garden. In the middle of the area a beautiful white marble euripus, set between the entrance hall, on one side, and the tricliniar pavilion with all its fountains, on the other (Fig. 56, m), reflected the encircling buildings with their polished walls. The view must have been very similar to the scene we now admire on the water of the Taj Mahal's canal at Agra.

Entering in the Piazza d'Oro the ancient garden extends itself before our view (Fig. 57). It is not a garden anymore but we can detect his planning by the structure that are still surfacing and it is stunning. Also fascinating is the spectacle we enjoy looking from the pavilion at the distant domed entrance hall. The large euripus, once all lined by white marble, is displayed before us (Fig. 58): We can easily imagine how, when the building was new and probably resplendent in its revetments, its marbles and all the refined decorations, its view would have been reflected in the limpid cana giving us the same effect that today we can enjoy visiting the Taj Mahal at Agra.

But there were not only the beauty and the refinement that appealed to us at the Piazza d'Oro. Very interesting was discovering all the gardening technics applied in it. Fascinating for instance was the watering system we found in the Piazza d'Oro garden (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1989-90). There were two canals each circling half o the garden. Te western one running 60 cm under the soil infiltrated directly at this level water in canal cut in the tufa and covered by masonry vaults (Fig. 59). The irrigation seeped directly in the garden canals through low rectangular cuts opened in the tufa (Fig. 60). All the flowerbeds had those canals, well cut and done by an accurate team of gardeners (Fig. 61). With this system as a consequence of the phenomenon of capillarity, every time the surface dried, the moisture rose up from the bottom and watered the roots of the plants; thus there was not even the loss of the good elements contained in the soil. Then, when the irrigation went on, little by little the soil, contained at the bottom of these trenches, became very soaked and water ran quickly toward the drainage canal. As a simple sluice, set at the start of the irrigation canal (Fig. 62), controlled all this system. To water nearly all the area a single man had only to lift it, and the same man could with a simple movement close the sluice when the soil didn't absorb more water.

Then when it was closed and all the water furnished by the pavilion fountains went to the eastern canal.

Here there was a different way to water the plants. Due to their inclination the canals were too deep for the capillarity, but all the same were still continued for letting them to reach the drainage canal. Thus in the eastern part of the garden a very old system was used, one that we find in Pasagarde, the splendid Cyrus park. Here marble lined canals joined a series of cubic basins. In the Piazza d'Oro the eastern canal, that in ancient times was completely covered by a vault, but that now for a spell lays in the open, had many little pits excavated in its bottom (Fig. 63). Over each one of them was placed a pump. Probably bronze ones that were pillaged in the middle age at the time of the "metals hunger". The breaks in the canal's vault (Fig. 56, p) seems to confirm this hypothesis.

Plans

Plan of the gardens at Hadrian's Villa — Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Plan of the Piazza d'Oro at Hadrian's Villa — Fig. 54: Plan of the Piazza d'Oro, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Isometric plan of the Piazza d'Oro at Hadrian's Villa — Fig. 55: Isometry of the Piazza d'Oro, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Plan of the cuts in the tufa platform and the irrigation in the Piazza d'Oro at Hadrian's Villa — Fig. 56: Cuts in the tufa platform and the irrigation in the Piazza d'Oro, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Cross-sections of the Piazza d'Oro garden at Hadrian's Villa, illustrating the irrigation by capillarity — Fig. 59: Irrigation by capillarity in the Piazza d'Oro garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Photograph of the Garden of the Piazza d'Oro at Hadrian's Villa — Fig. 57: The Garden of the Piazza d'Oro, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Photograph of the Piazza d'Oro at Hadrian's Villa — Fig. 58: The Piazza d'Oro, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Western view of the excavations of the Piazza d'Oro garden at Hadrian's Villa, showing the low rectangular cuts in the tufa through which irrigation seeped into the garden canals — Fig. 60: Western view of the excavations of the Piazza d'Oro garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Eastern view of the excavations of the Piazza d'Oro garden at Hadrian's Villa, showing the low rectangular cuts in the tufa through which irrigation seeped into the garden canals — Fig. 61: Eastern view of the excavations of the Piazza d'Oro garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Photograph of the cut for the sluice at the Piazza d'Oro garden Hadrian's Villa — Fig. 62: The cut for the sluice of the Piazza d'Oro garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Photograph of eastern irrigation canal of the Piazza d'Oro garden Hadrian's Villa, showing the many little pits excavated in its bottom — Fig. 63: The eastern canal of the Piazza d'Oro garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

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, "The Importance of Water in Roman Garden Triclinia", in Ancient Roman Villa Gardens (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection), Dumbarton Oaks 1987, pp. 180-181, figs. 29-34. (worldcat)
W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "I giardini di Villa Adriana: rapporto preliminare", Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti, Vol. 60 (1987-88), pp. 162-169, figs. 16-22. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Adriano: architettura del verde e dell'acqua", in Horti Romani, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, a cura di M. Cima, E. La Rocca, Roma 1998, pp. 370-374, figs. 4-8. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 339-354, figs. 117-126. (worldcat)
PLIN. nat. 16.60.139-141
PLIN. epist. 5.6.16-17
PLIN. nat. 12.3-5
PLIN. nat. 1.15-16
W. F. Jashemski, The Gardens of Pompeii Herculaneum and the Villas Destroyed by the Vesuvius, I, New York 1979, pp. 77-79 (worldcat)
W. F. Jashemski, The Gardens of Pompeii Herculaneum and the Villas Destroyed by the Vesuvius, II, New York 1993, passim (worldcat)
PLIN. nat. 16.28.70
PLIN. nat. 21.14 and 47
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro", Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 121-150. (worldcat)

Places

Piazza d'Oro at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 379689233

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983