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Maritime Villas in Roman Istria and Dalmatia

There are numerous Roman villas on Istrian and Dalmatian coast also on the neighboring islands, but there are rather few real maritime villas. As there are rather rare and the most exclusive Roman sites, we aim our attention to archaeological evidence and their possitions. The most important maritime villas are nearby Roman urban centres such as Parentium, Pola, Iader, Scardona, Salona, Narona and Epidaurum. Like maritime villas in Italy, such villas in the eastern Adriatic were prestige projects, villae amoenissimae, created from surplus income of the elite with political power in relation to Rome. In this brief overview, we shall discuss three villas, each respectively from the territories of Pola, Parentium, and Epidaurum. North of Parentium is Loron in Červar bay and Marina bay, and south is Sorna on the promontory. The large villa on Sorna straddled the promontory and its long porticoes opened to the wide vistas on all three sides - tria maria prospectat. In the territory of colony Pola there are five maritime villas - at Barbariga, on islands of Brijuni, in Valbandon bay, Vižula promontory and Banjole bay. We shall discuss only the villa on the island of Veli Brijun, the most elaborate maritime villa known in the eastern Adriatic and the subject of our research for several years. In the pitoresque bay of Verige, an original, late-Republican villa with a pars rustica and pars urbana, was transformed in the late Augustan period into terraced maritima, with a new domus and monumetal porticoes touching the sea. In the suburban area of Epidaurum there are three villas - on Sustjepan, Rat and Tiha bay. The villa on the Sustjepan promontory were spread over three terraces, with porticoes on the first und second, overlooking the bay. Epidaurum was an important port on the shipping line between Ionian and Adriatic seas and in the trans-Adriatic network.

maritime villas; roman architecture; Istria; Dalmatia

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