The Roman villa of Freiria ( pt, Villa Romana de Freiria) is a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...

in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

São Domingos de Rana São Domingos de Rana () is a Freguesia, civil parish ( pt, Freguesia (Portugal), freguesia) of the Portugal, Portuguese concelho, municipality of Cascais, part of the Greater Lisbon subregion. The population in 2011 was 57,502, in an area of 20.36 ...

, in the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of Cascais.

History

The site of Freiria and its surrounding areas had always been sites of human settlement, given the access of water. A

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος '' lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone to ...

site was identified 300 metres to the north of the villa and evidence of a

Chalcolithic The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...

settlement was found 200 metres to the northeast. At Cabeço do Mouro, four hundred meters to the west, two late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

settlements have been identified. Evidence suggests that the Freiria area was occupied at the end of the 1st

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

and continued to be occupied when the end of the 2nd Iron Age briefly co-existed with Roman occupation. Radiocarbon dating has identified items dating back to the second half of the 10th century BCE. While many of the items found on the site from the Iron Age were clearly imported into the area, towards the end of the period there was a gradual increase in the presence of locally made

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

s. The Roman occupation of Freiria occurred after its occupation during the

. Many of the most recent objects found at the site that are attributable to the Iron Age were found together with the oldest Roman items. Freiria gained importance in the first century CE, with an increase in new construction and renovation. This lasted until the fifth century when the area began to decline. The villa was constructed in the 2nd century. Vergílio Correia was the first to identify Roman vestiges in the area, when he discovered a Roman tombstone near the local quarries in 1912. First archaeological excavations occurred on site in 1973, by Guilherme Cardoso and José d'Encarnação. Further work was carried out between 1985 and 2002 by the same archaeologists, with the site having been identified as a Roman villa in 1985. The 1985, excavations unearthed a domus,

granary A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often made of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animals ...

and

thermae In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout ...

. Further excavations starting on 13 July 1987, financed by the Portuguese Institute for Architectural Heritage (''Instituto Português do Património Arquitetónico''), with logistical support from the municipal council and tourism bureau, resulting in the definition of a special zone of the ''villa fructuária''. The discovery of numerous bell-shaped ceramic fragments document the occupation of this area to a proto-historic phase of settlement. Among these were: the inferior section a

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in some ...

, a dog-like

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...

with barred teeth, needles and bone pins; iron alloys; bronze needle and a ceramic mold with the decoration of a lion. There are also in southern area of the villa with further stratigraphic layers of further potential archaeological interest.

Architecture

The site is situated in a rural area surrounded by agricultural lands. It is constituted by a "villa", with the "domus", of which a few floors have been found in the northeast corner of the

peristyle In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön ( grc, τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, lit=f ...

(with a covered patio set on columns, around a garden) with a marble column base and fallen capital, and an "

impluvium The ''impluvium'' (pl. ''impluvia'') is a water-catchment pool system meant to capture rain-water flowing from the ''compluvium'', or slanted roof. Often placed "inside", instead of "outside", a building, it is a notable feature in many archite ...

" (square opening in the middle of the

atrium Atrium may refer to: Anatomy * Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart * Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods * Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain * Pulmona ...

that collected rainwater. In the thermae is a water tank, with stones detected suggesting a possible buttress supporting the wall of the tank, possibly being a "

natatio In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughou ...

" that would simultaneously serve the northern thermal complex and the needs of the ''villa fructuária''. The surrounding agricultural area includes rural structures such as a barn and

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...

. The granary, which is large and extremely well built, has buttresses distributed along the northern and eastern foundation corridors, indicating a walled courtyard that used natural slab flooring. Also along the southern edge was an area expressly designed for an

earth oven An earth oven, ground oven or cooking pit is one of the simplest and most ancient cooking structures. At its most basic, an earth oven is a pit in the ground used to trap heat and bake, smoke, or steam food. Earth ovens have been used in many pl ...

to bake bread and an altar in honor of Triborunis (an indigenous divinity).

References

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * * {{citation , last=Cardoso , first=Guilherme , last2=Encarnação , first2=José d' , contribution=Villa Romana de Freiria , title=Informação Arqueológica , issue=9 , location=Lisbon, Portugal , year=1994 , pages=60-61 , language=Portuguese Freiras Archaeological sites in Lisbon District São Domingos de Rana Properties of Public Interest in Portugal Buildings and structures in Cascais