Torre Llauder
About
Torre Llauder rose near Iluro, a Roman colony on Catalonia's coast, built around the time of Augustus with views over the Maresme shoreline. Local historian Maria Ribas discovered the buried villa in 1961, and study later connected its finest mosaic floors to a late-2nd-century refurbishment, well past this snapshot. Spain declared the site a monument of national historic-artistic interest, protecting its hypocaust and residential wings from Mataro's urban growth. By 117 CE the villa had already stood for over a century.
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 →