Villa della Palombara
Description
The Villa della Palombara was a large, sumptuous ancient Roman villa. It is now an archaeological site located within the pine forest of Castel Fusano near Ostia, Italy. It originally may have belonged to the famous orator Hortensius (114–50 BC). It would have impressed with its exceptional proportions covering about 4 hectares.
It was built on the seashore overlooking the sea, on the ancient Via Severiana between ancient Ostia and Laurentum. Due to build up of sand it is now 600m from the beach.
The villa was rediscovered in 1713 and erroneously identified with the villa of Pliny the Younger who had a villa nearby at Laurentum described in a letter addressed to his friend Gallus and probably located at Villa Magna.
The paleo-Christian basilica, which stands outside the northeast supporting wall of the Villa della Palombara, was discovered in 1939 by Colini. In 1953, during studies conducted by Gatti at the site, a child's tomb with a pointed roof and a marble sarcophagus with marine scenes and a funerary inscription, dated by style, were discovered outside the entrance to the church and dated to 150-175 AD.
Address
Città Metropolitana di Roma, Italy
Established
1st century BCE
Wikipedia article