Albanum Domitiani
About
Domitian carved his retreat out of 14 square kilometers of the Alban Hills, terracing the slope in three tiers toward Lake Albano with a private hippodrome and a 300-meter cryptoporticus cut into the hillside. After his assassination in 96 CE his successors visited only occasionally, though Trajan and Hadrian both carried out modifications to the property in the early 2nd century. Its ruins now sit beneath the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo, the popes' summer residence.
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
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 →