english

you are here: Home More About The Roman villa in Positano: the past that emerges

Stay

Visit a locality browsing the menu on the left. In each Italy area you can then choose the best touristical structures we are proposing.

Most viewed in Italy

  • Hotel Santa Caterina Amalfi

    Located on the famous AmalfiCoast drive, a few minutes from the famous town of Amalfi, the Santa Caterina enjoys a panoramic coastal setting of incomparable beauty. The history of this special resort is as impressive as its surroundings. In 1880, Giuseppe...

  • Hotel Marina Riviera Amalfi

    Situated on the last bend of Amalfi's promenade and beach, this hotel is on four levels. Bright and Mediterranean in style, the Marina Riviera is a converted old noble villa. All rooms are spacious & tastefully furnished, and have open windows or balconies...

  • Hotel Villa Maria Ravello

    Hotel Villa Maria - Amalfi's Coast - Ravello Owned by the Palumbo family, the Villa Maria Hotel offers to its guest the romantic atmosphere of the enchanting Ravello. It is located in a central position, in the historic center of the town, among Villa...

  • Hotel Punta Tragara Capri

    A path immersed in the colours and scents of abundant Mediterranean flora leads to the viewpoint of PuntaTragara in Capri, the setting for one of the most exclusive hotels in the world. Hotel PuntaTragara reigns over the most dramatically beautiful scenery,...

  • Hotel Bellevue Suite Amalfi Coast

    The Hotel Bellevue is a beautiful Mediterranean-style property, totally refurbished in 2007, surrounded by warm colored geranium and bougainvilleas, lush Mediterranean vegetation and lemon groves. It is located along the scenic "Strada Statale Amalfitana"...

Print this page Send to a friend by e-mail

The Roman villa in Positano: the past that emerges

In Roman times many villas were built by emperors and wealthy aristocrats along the coastline of the Campania felix: from the Sorrento peninsula to Paestum, including the Amalfi Coast and Capri. They were the so called "villae maritimae", accessible only by the sea, place of otium and exclusive retreat for the most important exponents of the Roman policy and aristocracy.

During the works in both Piazza Flavio Gioia and the crypt of the Church dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta in Positano, have been brought to light the walls and the collapsed roofs of a maritime villa (dating back from the I century BC and the I century AD), damaged before by the earthquake of 62AD and, then, swamped by ash and pumice of the Vesuvius eruption in 79AD. Part of the villa as well as of the sculptural decoration were already discovered in the XVII century and, later, in the second half of the XVIII century by Carlo Weber, the Swiss architect who followed the excavations at Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae by order of Charles of Bourbon. In the twenties of the ‘900 a local butcher, during the works in his shop near the church, brought to life other portions of the villa.

As happened in Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae, the eruptive materials allowed a perfect preservation of the porches, peristyle, various rooms, frescoes and stucco. In particular we can see a wall in opus reticulatum, decorated by a stucco frame and beautiful polychrome frescoes in Pompeian style, depicting a seahorse, an eagle, a Pegasus and two cupids. The depictions are framed by fine architectural backgrounds as a coffered ceiling and a classical architrave.

According to Della Corte's opinion the Roman villa in Positano belonged to the gladiator Posides Claudi Caesaris libertus (a freedman to whom the emperor Claudius donated the pure lance, as a reward for the conquests against the Britons. If this theory was true, the name of Positano could derive from Posides, as the villa would be considered the "praedium posidetanum" (Posides's property).

Choose language

italiano

english