Can you hear the conversations between the people who, at the beginning of the 4th century AD, went to the various rooms of the Peristyle? Listen ... the guards with their large, circular, colourful shields, represented in the official route, seem to come to life and pervade the entire room with a d...
The long colonnade of this large quadrangular space has mostly grey granite shafts with attic-type white marble bases. The corner columns, on the other hand, are made of breccia di Settebassi. The white marble capitals of Corinthian order, with the lightness and elegance of their acanthus leaves, we...
The great Peristyle must have been pervaded by a multitude of different scents. From the kitchen, albeit more hidden than the other spaces of the late antique residence facing the porticoed corridor, the sweet fragrance of bread dipped in wine, fruit and cheese announced the ientaculum, breakfast. I...
This long porticoed corridor is really wide and leads to all the rooms of the central core of the villa. Its architecture is very scenic and consists of thirty-two tall columns with an Attic base and Corinthian capitals. It has a courtyard in the centre and a large fountain with three basins which, ...
The small aedicula, dedicated to the worship of the Lares, was filled with terracotta, bronze or silver representations of the ancestors of the dominus' family. Even today, we can still recognise the remains of the marble slabs that covered its walls, underlining the representative role of this plac...
The smell of incense and other aromatic substances that were burned during the votive offering mingled with the scent coming from the lush vegetation of the garden behind the small temple. In the worship that took place within the domestic walls, the offering usually consisted of a foodstuff, which ...
Today, only the mosaic floor and part of the walls remain of this room, but originally its structure resembled the form of a small temple. It was, in fact, the sacred place of the late antique residence, where the Lares were worshipped, ancestors who became protective deities of the family. Every mo...
Because of its location close to the Vestibule, in the public path through the Peristyle, the small apsidal chamber was immersed in the echo of the voices of those walking inside the long colonnaded portico during the day. Only during the ceremony held in the presence of the dominus, when the late a...
The welcoming ceremony involved wearing appropriate clothing for the occasion. It was an important form of homage and even the clothes had to express the official character through the richness of the fabric, cotton and silk materials from the East. The decorations, orbicles and clubs, superimposed ...
The smell of candles must have wafted through the atmosphere of the vestibule, mixed with the aroma of the laurel branches and plant crowns that encircled the heads of all the characters represented! Looking at the southern wall, we can now just make out, a short distance from the floor, the shoes...
MiC – Ministero della Cultura
Legge 77/2006 - Misure Speciali di Tutela e Fruizione dei Siti Italiani di Interesse Culturale, Paesaggistico e Ambientale, inseriti nella “Lista Del Patrimonio Mondiale”, posti sotto la Tutela dell’ UNESCO Regione Siciliana.
Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana, Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana.
Parco archeologico della Valle dei Templi di Agrigento.
hearing 
touch 
smell 
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