House of Cantaber

HouseLusitania · Condeixa-a-Velha, PortugalBuilt 80 CE · Destroyed 300 CE

About

One of the largest domestic complexes excavated at Conimbriga, this peristyle mansion took its main form under the Flavian emperors (69-96 CE), replacing an earlier, less well-understood building on the plot. By 117 CE it had likely stood for a generation or more as one of the town's grander private residences — the private bath suite it is often pictured with was a later addition at the end of the 2nd century, and the house was substantially reworked again once the town wall was pushed through this district around 300 CE.

What happened here

The front door opens onto a corridor and then a roofed hall with a pool under an opening in the roof, and that hall is a public room — clients arrive at dawn to greet the owner, and the whole plan is arranged so they can be received and impressed. Behind it, a colonnaded garden with a dining room off it, three couches around a low table, guests reclining on the left elbow. Rooms are small, dark and multi-purpose; furniture is moved as needed. Walls are painted to open the space out with fake architecture and landscapes. Windows are shuttered rather than glazed. Cooking, laundry and the slaves' quarters are pushed to the edges. Street frontage is let out as shops, because it is too valuable to waste.