Carnuntum Villa Urbana
About
A timber house went up inside the future civilian town of Carnuntum in the 1st century CE, decades before Hadrian granted the settlement its Roman city charter. Around 200 CE it was rebuilt in wood and stone, and by 300 CE the whole villa stood in stone alone. Archaeologists named it the Villa Urbana for the wealth its later owners piled into it. In 117 CE its walls were still just timber and thatch.
What happened here
A working estate with a comfortable house attached, and the proportions vary with how rich the owner is and how often he visits. The farm side has presses for oil and wine, threshing floors, storage sunk into the ground, stables and quarters for the workforce. The residential side has baths, dining rooms sited for the view, mosaics, and a garden with water in it. A manager runs the place year-round and reports; the owner arrives for the vintage and for the summer. Produce goes to market or to the owner's town house, and the accounts are kept in detail. Some villas are pure retreat with no farm at all, built on a cliff or a lake specifically to be looked at from a boat.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →