Villa Armira
The Villa Armira ( Bulgarian Вила Армира ) is a suburban , ancient Roman villa (country house, villa rustica ) in southeastern Bulgaria . Located about 2 km south of Ivaylovgrad in the Haskovo Province, it is one of the most remarkable Roman villas in the Roman province of Thrace . The diverse floor mosaics found in the villa with intertwined geometric, vegetable, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs represent the largest find of its kind in Bulgaria, at most with theFloor mosaics in Marcianopolis (today Dewnja ) is comparable. Today the villa is known under the name Villa Armira, which is derived from the name of the small river Armira (also called Aterenska reka - Bulgarian Атеренска река ), on the bank of which the villa is located. The Armira River is a tributary of the Arda , which in turn is a tributary of the Mariza . The Villa Armira is now classified as a cultural monument of national importance.
discovery
The villa was discovered by accident in 1964 by workers during the construction of a small dam . Due to the location of the villa at the foot of a small slope, it was completely covered by the earth washed down and remained undiscovered for centuries. The construction of the small dam ("micro dam") was temporarily stopped after the discovery. Archaeological excavations then made it clear that it was the remains of a suburban villa from the period of the Roman Empire . Initially, the plan was to salvage the finds, which is why all floor mosaics were fixed in larger pieces using a special technique through an injected concrete slab. Ultimately, however, it was decided to leave the finds on site and set up a museum on site. The construction of the small dam in this small valley was finally abandoned. The already completed concrete water extraction tower in the dam is still near the museum today.
The villa was reconstructed and partially rebuilt ( Anastilosis ) with the help of funding from the European Union's PHARE program and opened to visitors in 2008.
history
The villa was built in the second half of the 1st century (between 50 and 70 AD), shortly after the establishment of the Roman province of Thrace in 46 AD. Originally, the villa belonged to a Thracian nobleman in Roman service, who was probably governor the environment was.
At the beginning of the 2nd century a workshop for artistic work and marble processing was set up for the construction of the villa directly on the building site, the white marble for this was obtained directly in the area. The stone carvers for this work were brought from the town of Aphrodisias in Asia Minor , which was known for its sculpture school in Roman times.
The Villa Armira was inhabited until the late 4th century. Its destruction was linked to the great devastation of the Hadrianopolis region in 378 - during the second war of the Romans against the Goths. In 378 the Romans were defeated there by the Goths in the Battle of Adrianople under Emperor Valens . The emperor was wounded during the battle and carried by his soldiers to a villa near the battlefield (Villa Armira is 40 km west of Hadrianopel). But then the Goths discovered the sanctuary of the wounded emperor. They took the villa, burned it down and killed the emperor. Possibly these events took place in the Villa Armira. What is certain, however, is that the villa burned down around this time.
description
The villa is at an altitude of 200 m, at the southern foot of a 300 m high mountain. The front of the villa faces south. There, at the eastern foothills of the Eastern Rhodopes (called Arpsos in Roman times - Bulgarian Арпезос ), the flat, only slightly hilly mountains merge into a low plain that extends to the east, through which the Arda flows to the east for 40 km distant Edirne.
The villa is a larger complex of residential and commercial buildings. The two-storey, U-shaped building has a floor area of 3600 m², surrounded by a garden. The residential buildings take up an area of 978 m², including a larger inner courtyard with a peristyle that surrounds a water basin ( impluvium - 11 × 7 m, almost 2 m deep). The living rooms are arranged around the inner courtyard - dining room, living room, bedroom, bathroom. The heating was done by floor heating ( hypocaust ), the floor slabs stood on small brick pillars, between which the air heated by a fire flowed through.
The villa had 22 separate rooms on the ground floor and an additional panoramic terrace. The whole of the first floor was covered with ornate white marble.
The floor mosaics show typical motifs from ancient Roman art. The mosaics in the master's room (dominus) depict the master who owned the villa in the 2nd century and his two children. These are the only mosaic portraits from the Roman era found in Bulgaria.
A common and recurring theme in the decoration of the villa is the Gorgon Medusa . In the 3rd century, the villa was extended to the east by adding a reception / dining room ( triclinium , 11.70 × 10.90 m) with associated ancillary rooms for service and underfloor heating ( hypocaust ), as the villa over time was its inhabitants had become too small. So the building was converted into a palace villa.
The portrait of the landlord and his two children from the 2nd century can now be seen in the National History Museum in Sofia. The ceramic finds can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum in Sofia. Copies of the marble decoration are exhibited in the Kardzhali Regional History Museum .
During the excavations, well-preserved floor mosaics with figural and geometric motifs were discovered, as well as capitals , openwork (à jour) parapets in marble in lattice form that surrounded the water basin, pillars with attached heads ( hermes ), fragments of columns, pilasters and marble decorations and - delusions. Many ceramic vessels, jewelry and objects of everyday use were also found.
A colonnade with columns in Corinthian style runs around the water basin , the wall along the colonnade is decorated with pilasters and friezes .
The villa is appropriately decorated with floor mosaics, ornaments and rich marble decorations in all rooms, as well as a coat of paint. In this respect, the villa is the most spectacular of all similar buildings known to date in the territory of the Roman province of Thrace . Buildings with a similar marble cladding are rarely found in the provinces of the Roman Empire (1st to 5th centuries). Particularly important is the fact that the well-preserved condition of the decorative elements made it possible to practically completely restore the interior of the building.
Because of the subsidence in the area of the adjacent farm buildings, these were in a poorer condition. The economic complex should enable the agricultural use of the fields belonging to the villa, the storage of agricultural implements and agricultural products, as well as their further processing in these farm buildings. However, there are no concrete data on the agriculture belonging to the villa.
Family necropolis
In the vicinity of the Villa Armira, in the field of the present village Swiratschi (bulg. Свирачи ) is an ancient grave Hill ( Hill grave = Tumulus) ( 41 ° 28 '52 " N , 26 ° 7' 12" O ), poured onto a Stone foundation. This necropolis was in use during the Roman era, more precisely during the early reign of Emperor Trajan (97-117).
The necropolis, which is 2.3 km south-east of Villa Armira as the crow flies, was probably used as a family grave for the owners of Villa Armira. The burial mound piled up on the grave is approx. 16 meters high. The embankment rests on a massive stone structure about 200 meters long around the base of the hill.
On the territory of today's Bulgaria there is no construction that can be compared to this burial mound from the early Roman era. A stone cladding was attached to the complex base ( stylobate ) made of rubble and mortar. The whole construction obviously followed a preconceived architectural plan. The blocks of the cladding are up to 3.70 meters in length and each is arched on the outside. They are arranged in 10 rows in steps. The connection between them was realized by massive iron clips that were soldered with lead. The burial mound is piled up over numerous smaller graves; the earth for this was taken from the environment. Prehistoric materials can also be found in the heaped earth, they probably come from a nearby settlement.
literature
- Janka Mladenova: The Roman villa near Ivajlovgrad (VR Bulgaria) and its architectural decoration. In: Das Altertum 27 (1981) pp. 38-48
- Janka Mladenova: Antičnata vila Armira kraj Ivajlovgrad. The ancient villa Armira near Ivailovgrad. Bŭlgarskata akademiia na naukite, Sofia 1991
Individual evidence
- ↑ Вила Армира - Паметник на културата с национално значение ( Bulgarian ) Община Ивайловград. Archived from the original on January 13, 2010. Retrieved April 2, 2012.
- ^ Dominique Auzias, Jean-Paul Labourdette, Anouck Baudoin, Nevena Panayotova: Ivailovgrad: Points d'intérêt . In: Le Petit Futé Bulgarie ( French ). Petit Futé, 2008, ISBN 9782746921412 , p. 276.
Web links
- Вила "Армира" вече е отворена за посетители (bulg .; Villa "Armira" is now open to visitors; July 25, 2008)
- Villa Armira (bulg.)
Coordinates: 41 ° 30 ' N , 26 ° 6' E