Roman villa of Santo André de Almoçageme
Encyclopedia
In Santo André de Almoçageme, Sintra
, is located the westernmost villa
of the Roman Empire
with occupation from the second to the sixth centuries AD.
Excavations exposed a large area of the main house – pars urbana – in which several rooms with mosaic pavements exist north of the peristyle
.
An area of the pars rustica was also excavated. It had been utilized for the production of ceramics, and on a later stage, after the oven and adjoining structures became derelict, at least two newborn children were buried there.
Sintra
Sintra is a town within the municipality of Sintra in the Grande Lisboa subregion of Portugal. Owing to its 19th century Romantic architecture and landscapes, becoming a major tourist centre, visited by many day-trippers who travel from the urbanized suburbs and capital of Lisbon.In addition to...
, is located the westernmost villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
with occupation from the second to the sixth centuries AD.
Excavations exposed a large area of the main house – pars urbana – in which several rooms with mosaic pavements exist north of the peristyle
Peristyle
In Hellenistic Greek and Roman architecture a peristyle is a columned porch or open colonnade in a building surrounding a court that may contain an internal garden. Tetrastoon is another name for this feature...
.
An area of the pars rustica was also excavated. It had been utilized for the production of ceramics, and on a later stage, after the oven and adjoining structures became derelict, at least two newborn children were buried there.