Villa Romana del Casale: the glorious past of Piazza Armerina

Piazza Armerina, splendid city of art, nestled in the center of Sicily, with a long series of monuments that tell a glorious past. The pride of the town is the Villa Romana del Casale, dating from the late fourth century. d.C. and it belonged to a powerful Roman family.
The beautiful Roman imperial villa in the heart of Sicily, in the province of Enna, It is a wonderful rural home, whose charm is mainly due to the beautiful mosaics, considered the most beautiful and best preserved of their kind.

A major campaign of excavations in the mid-twentieth century brought to light 3500 square meters of figurative mosaic floor and geometric style, in addition to columns, statue, capitals and coins.
The lifestyle of the house owner is celebrated by this series of floor mosaics e parietal and manifests, with wealth and eloquence, in every room of the house showing obvious stylistic influences from African, which led to think of the presence of African craftsmen among workers.
The mosaics are distinguished different styles and narrative cycles: one dedicated to the mythology and the Homeric poems, the other with references to nature and to the Roman aristocracy everyday scenes.

Four distinct areas have been identified among the remains of the villa: l’entrance with monumental horseshoe court; the central body the villa, It built around a court with garden; a big room with three apses (trichora), preceded by an oval colonnade, around which several rooms are located; the spa complex.
In December 2012 They were completed the restoration work which for several years have affected the mosaics and wall paintings.

So many environments that can be visited today: The area of ​​the baths; the input porticoed court and the honorary arch; the vestibule and the peristyle porch; the service areas, including the room of "Small Hunting”, the hall of "Great Hunt"And the room of"Palestrite”; the northern manor apartments with the mosaic of Ulysses and Polyphemus and the room with Cupid and Psyche and southern manor apartments with mosaic depicting the Myth of Arion and the room of Eros and Pan; the dining room and the porch; the Basilica.