An ancient royal villa up in the mountain with the largest mosaic in the world - Villa Romana del Casale 832
What and Why
We crossed from the west of Sicily (Italian: Sicilia) to the east and in the middle of the drive, we arrived at a ruined villa in the middle of nowhere. The complex used to be a very large villa both for public and private use. The site dates back to 4th century CE. The Villa Romana del Casale is renowned for the extraordinary amount of well-preserved beautiful frescoes inside the villa. Excavations have revealed that the villa contains one of the richest, largest, and most varied collections of Roman mosaics in the world. The mosaics are exceptional for their artistic quality, invention as well as their size.
Toponymy
'Villa Romana del Casale' simply means a 'Roman country villa' in Italian. The origin of 'Armerina' is untraceable.
See
The layout of the villa is quite weird as it seems that it was constructed without a main plan with chambers sticking out here and there without patterns and forms, showing that the villa had been rebuilt over and over again by different architects. Apparently neither the owner nor the architect(s) can be identified definitively.
The villa itself has become a huge museum and is well guided with very good and detailed explanation boards. Amongst the many features, the few that draws main attentions are:
Thermal Baths (Terme)
The apse - entrance into the baths with a beautiful mosaic on the floor.
There are other beautiful mosaics in different rooms.
Peristyle garden (Giardino peristilio)
The face of the animal on at the tiles actually represents the direction of human traffic around the peristyle courtyard.
The Great Hunt (La Grande Cassia)
The highlight of the villa is The Great Hunt (La Grande Cassia) along the large corridor. This is the largest mosaic fresco in the world and is extremely well preserved. From end-to-end, it measures up to 66 m.
The remarkable mosaic along this corridor is very complex. It is a depiction of the capture of live wild beasts all around the world and their subsequent transport by ship to Rome (Roma) for fights in the Colosseum or other circuses. The entire 66-m mosaic depicts almost a grand display of stories during the era. All the mosaics are almost certain to be made by African artists and artisans of the time.
Bikini girls (Ragazze)
Another extraordinary piece is the so-called Bikini girls (Ragazze), which features ten girls doing some kind of gymnastics with one being coronated the winner. What was more remarkable was that sports were not as common in the female gender during the era.
The other striking part was the fact that at the top left corner you see that someone had plied open the bikini mosaics and revealed another tile-layer underneath the bikini girls. This apparently shows that the villa has changed occupation and the use of the room had been rethought.
Basilica
The grand room shows a good layer of marble tiles plus a very ornate but totally destroyed dome.
Buy and Do
There is a factory outlet called Sicilia Outlet Village in Agira, which is around 45-minute drive from Piazza Armerina. A good way to quench my friends' shopping thirst, where they found their usual joy and spent more time there than in the villa.
Eat and Drink
Before we went to the villa, we had lunch in a family-run restaurant called La Ruota. Honestly this is in the middle of nowhere and it is quite unbelievable that this restaurant is a Michelin-recommended eatery for ten consecutive years! You can see all the stickers on the door panel. Perhaps I was astounded by the stickers, I had an over-expectation of the food...
Getting There and Around
By car, honestly it is in the middle of nowhere. The entrance fee is EUR 10€. A good half-day excursion from Palermo.
UNESCO Inscription
Roman exploitation of the countryside is symbolized by the Villa Romana del Casale (in Sicily), the centre of the large estate upon which the rural economy of the Western Empire was based. The villa is one of the most luxurious of its kind. It is especially noteworthy for the richness and quality of the mosaics which decorate almost every room; they are the finest mosaics in situ anywhere in the Roman world.
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