THE LUXURIUS VILLA OF SAN MARCO
The beautiful city of Castellammare is located on the Bay of Naples, on the route to Sorrento. The modern town lies next to the ancient Roman city of Stabiae, destroyed by the Vesuvius eruption in 79 A.D. During the Roman age, Stabiae was one of the favourite places for the patricians, who came here to spend the leisure time during the summer season, to enjoy a breathtaking view on the gulf and to be in contact with nature.
The archaeological excavations, undertaken by the king Charles of Bourbon in the XVIII century, have brought to light six luxurious villas (otium villas) whose owners could have been senators or relatives of the imperial family. In 1950 Libero D’Orsi expanded the dig inside three of this villas and actually the excavation is currently undergoing.
The most attractive complex is the so called Villa San Marco, whose name comes from a chapel dedicated to this saint and located next to the ruins. With its eleven thousand square meters of width, among gardens surrounded by large colonnades, a swimming pool, thermal baths and different rooms overlooking the gulf, the villa was built in the Augustan age to be later enlarged in the Neronian age.
The complex was located in a strategic position, connected to the urban system through a ramp accessible from a secondary entrance. As soon as you enter, you are surrounded by the bright colours of the mythological frescoes and precious pictures with still-life in the bedrooms close to the atrium. Then you go on one side in the kitchen, on the other side in the spacious spa district accessible at that time only to the owners and their guests, equipped with the samovar heating system in the calidarium, the hot room.
The most interesting sector of the villa is, however, the garden with a central swimming pool about 30 meters long, ending in a nymphaeum decorated with mosaics and lined with replanted plane trees after obtaining plaster casts of ancient trees. Along the colonnade that surrounds the garden, the walls are painted with still-nature, creating an illusionistic effect and widening even more the natural space From here you reach the upper garden, surrounded by twisted columns, with panoramic view of Mount Vesuvius. A hidden wonder not to be missed!
