Villa of Basse-Wavre (l'Hosté)
About
Farmers at Basse-Wavre worked an estate known locally as l'Hosté, one of the largest and most influential Roman villas of northern Gaul. Its main residence first rose beside the Dyle valley under Tiberius or Claudius, decades before Trajan's reign. Excavators from the Brussels Archaeological Society uncovered its foundations between 1904 and 1914, then reburied them, leaving the plan preserved underground to this day. Already about eight decades old in 117 CE, the villa continued in use until it burned during the Germanic invasions of 257-266.
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 →