Villa Romana di Minori
About
This two-level villa sat at the mouth of the Reginna Minor river, built in the early 1st century CE around a garden courtyard with a central pool typical of wealthy Roman residences. Ash from the 79 CE Vesuvius eruption buried the site 11 meters deep, and it lay forgotten until the collapse of nearby houses exposed it in 1932. It stands as one of the few excavated standing Roman villa complexes on the Amalfi Coast's southern side.
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 →