The Roman villas on the Island of Elba

Besides its unspoilt nature, crystal-clear sea and beautiful beaches, the Island of Elba is also renowned for its ancient history. There are numerous testimonies scattered throughout the territory. Such as the three famous villas built by noble Roman patricians brought to light during the 20th century. Let’s discover them together!

The Roman Villa of Grotte

The Roman Villa of Grotte is one of the most important archaeological testimonies of the Roman period in the Tuscan Archipelago. It stands on a promontory overlooking the Portoferraio roadstead and is the best preserved of the three Roman villas on the Island of Elba. Built in the Augustan period (around the 1st century BC) by order of the family of the consul Marcus Valerius Messalla, it was a veritable palace. Consisting of a large residential quarter surrounded by gardens, it was equipped with a colonnaded portico framing the water supply basin, an internal vegetable garden, thermal buildings and a small granite pier that was intended to serve as a mooring for those arriving by sea. Despite the damage caused by time and, above all, by man, some walls in opus reticulatum and parts of mosaic can still be admired on the site, and the pool with the facilities for heating the water is still clearly visible. Walking among the remains, you can imagine what everyday life was like at the time and the reality of the original inhabitants.

The Roman Villa of Linguella

Opposite the Roman Villa of Grotte, on the promontory of Portoferraio that closes the Darsena to the east, are the remains of the Villa Roman Villa of Linguella, also built in the 1st century BC. Inhabited for at least 300 years, it was repeatedly subjected to works. Enlarged between the 1st century B.C. and the 1st century A.D., it experienced its greatest extension in the 2nd century A.D., when Publius Acilius Actianus, prefect of the praetorium of Emperor Hadrian, is believed to have stayed there. In the 3rd century the villa was abandoned and stripped of its precious marbles. Much of the ancient stratification was later disrupted in the 16th century, when Cosimo de’ Medici had a fortress built in the area to complete the city’s defence system by the sea. Few traces remain of the original structure, all probably related to the spa area. The Medici fortress now houses the Archaeological Civic Museum, which offers an extraordinary journey through time spanning eleven centuries (from the end of the 8th – beginning of the 7th century B.C. to the 5th century A.D.) through the extensive collection of materials from underwater and insular finds in the Elban area.

The Roman Villa of Capo Castello

From Portoferraio, we move on to Cavo (a hamlet of the municipality of Rio), where the remains of the Roman Villa of Capo Castello can be found. Located on the promontory separating the Frugoso beach from Cala delle Alghe, it probably had a parallel life to that of the Villa delle Grotte. The complex, datable between the last quarter of the 1st century B.C. and the middle of the 2nd century B.C., was built in a highly panoramic position on six terraces sloping towards the sea in the four directions north, south, east, west. On the uppermost terrace was built the residential core, followed by two terraces arranged in a garden; downwards, there was the stately home. Today, parts of the rooms and structures are incorporated into contemporary constructions, so that the archaeological site can now be said to be within the urban centre of Cavo. In the surviving flooring, one can recognise the opus sectile and the black and white tessellae mosaic. The archaeological artefacts found in the villa are on display in the Museo Civico Archeologico della Linguella and the Museo Archeologico del Distretto Minerario in Rio nell’Elba.

Featured photo © Villa Romana delle Grotte | Photo gallery © Villa Romana delle Grotte – Sistema Museale Arcipelago Toscano – Romano Impero