VILLA ROMANA DEL CASALE

Five kilometers southwest of the town of Piazza Armerina, immersed in the Sicilian countryside, emerge the ruins of the Roman villa of Casale, also known as "Philisophiana". Its construction dates back to the third century, and the villa is now known for its 3,500^m2 of mosaics. It has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1997, and is therefore a must-see in the area.

History. The name "Philisophiana" appears already in the ^fourth century AD in the itinerary of Antoninus, a kind of road map of Sicily at that time. The fame of this Roman villa throughout the world comes from its splendid mosaics which, in the variety of their subjects, their narrative character and the diversity of their colors, form an invaluable document which develops on more than 3 500 m ². Of an undeniable artistic value, they are also a precious testimony of the customs of the Roman time. For a long time, uncertainty reigned around this residential complex. Today, research allows us to affirm that the villa was built between the end of the ^3rd century and the beginning of the ^4th century A.D., and that it was then at the center of a large latifundium (agricultural domain).

For some, a hypothesis seems to stand out from the others, putting forward the name of Aradius Valerius Popolunius, a pagan of African origin, first Comes at the imperial court of Constantine, member of the high Roman senatorial aristocracy and governor of Sicily between 327 and 331. On the other hand, according to Professor Vinicio Gentile, this villa would have been built on the remains of a century-old rustic villa. The owner would be the Roman emperor Maximus Herculus. It would have been first inhabited by the emperor and his family, then by the Romans until 440, when the barbarians (Ostrogoths, Vandals, Visigoths) invaded Sicily. The villa then passed into the hands of the Byzantines, and then became the property of the Arabs. It was then given the name of Casale des Sarrasins. Finally, it was the Normans who became the owners, while they had control over the island until 1194. Mount Mangone collapsed on the villa, which remained underground for seven centuries.

If there are some traces of the existence of such an ancient complex in some texts, its existence was revealed only in 1881 by the work of the architect Pappalardo. In order to uncover it almost entirely, a number of excavation campaigns were necessary. It is probable that some rooms and wings of the building have not yet been uncovered.

Visit. The villa is articulated in three large groups connected between them: the main entrance and the thermal complex; the central core with the peristyle; the basilica and the private rooms, the triclinium and the elliptical peristyle. Footbridges were installed to allow to see the mosaics from above.

We start with the thermal quarter, very well preserved, of which we suspect that it was rather intended for the guests and the foreigners, and that it was then not connected to the rest of the villa. It is a hydraulic wonder.

The anointing room supports the theory that the baths were both public and private: on the mosaic, we see slaves (named and, for one of them, wearing a kind of conical hat indicating its Syrian origin) during a scene of everyday life. The mosaic of the man being massaged is particularly beautiful. In the apses, the scenes present characters in their daily intimacy, which contrast with the official character of the spaces.

The left side of the great peristyle is occupied by a series of rooms with beautiful mosaics with erotic character belonging to a private apartment. The apartment on the right, more monumental and larger, is decorated with mosaics with the staging more theatrical than mythical, which represent, among others, the myth of Arion, who plays the lyre, riding a dolphin and surrounded by other marine characters. The heads of the animals, surrounded by laurel wreaths, showed the way and facilitated the movements in the villa.

In the largest room is preserved the mosaic pavement of the small hunting, one of the most beautiful of the villa: we admire its plant decorations, its hunting scenes (capture of deer with a net and hunting with a falcon). Then, still in the great peristyle but on the west side, opens a long apsidal corridor, called promenorium of the great hunt, which has the most impressive mosaic of the complex. It is 60 m long and depicts the capture of wild animals intended for the games of the amphitheater (for information, the latter were embarked in Carthage and disembarked in Ostia, because there was never wild animals in Sicily).

In the southern part of the great peristyle, various rooms open, one of which, called the room of the Ten Young Girls, invites you to admire the most famous mosaic of the villa: ten girls participate in gymnastics tests in outfits close to the bikini as we know it today.

Finally, the triniclium, found on the west side of the peristyle, is a large square room with apses on three sides, as well as a large mosaic illustrating the works of Hercules.