Villa del Casale in Piazza Armerina

PIazza Armerina, the mosaics of the Roman Villa del Casale

The city of Piazza Armerina is located in the southern Erei mountains at a height of 700 metres above sea level a short distance from the main town of Enna in the heart of the most wild and untamed area of Sicily. The town was constructed under the orders of the Norman king Roger II and is surrounded by woods of the Ronza Park and other forests. Piazza Armerina, now classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is famous for the Villa Romana del Casale which was constructed in the 4th century and contains some of the finest examples of Roman mosaics created by African craftsmen. The villa was constructed as a result of increasing pressure on the wealthy Roman classes, in particular senators and quaestors, to move away from the cities to country estates due to growing fiscal pressure and the burden of their responsibility to maintain public services. And so the owners themselves came to occupy these estates which were no longer cultivated by slaves but by colonists. Considerable sums of money were spent on the enlargement and embellishment of country residences or villas to make them more comfortable. The Villa del Casale is an example of a villa that underwent such a process, as is the Villa del Tellaro near Noto. The Villa del Casale comprises a monumental entrance with 3 arches which led to the thermal complex with an octagonal room or to the residential complex made up of the Vestibule, quadrangular peristyle, ovoid peristyle, the corridor of the "Great Hunt", service areas and master apartments of the northern, eastern and southern side.


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