Morning at the Villa Armira
The Villa Armira, the Roman Empire-era site outside Bulgaria’s Ivailovgrad, represents an archeologist’s dream and an engineer’s nightmare.
In the final few metres before arriving at the front door of the complex that shelters the villa, the car passes a forlornly unfinished concrete tower, with stalks of rusted steel jutting, sterile, into the sky.
The tower is the only prominent sign of a plan to build a dam on the site, just 1.5km from Ivailovgrad’s Ladzha district (finding the site is not difficult if one follows the signs outside Ivailovgrad). When, in 1964, steel struck the remains of a Roman building, the dam plan evaporated into the realm of projects that forever would remain unfinished.
Estimates are that the villa as we see it now represents the remains of the culmination of the efforts of centuries as the owners of the villa made it ever more elaborate, luxurious and well-fitted for its times.
Archeologists tell us that work on the Villa Armira began some time in the first part of the second century CE during the reign of emperor Adrian, who was in power for about 20 years up to 138.
The villa shares its name with the nearby river Armira, and on a hot May morning such as this one, the villa’s residents must have been grateful for the extensive pool that is embraced by a column-lined gallery within the inner yard.
Around the pool stand the restored remains of a hemstitched marble rail, decorated by small busts of the family that owned the villa.
The main components of the villa include a large entertainment hall – a feast hall, to be more precise, a reception hall, a yard, vestibule, the pool, the owners’ bedroom, dining room and a sauna and bathing facility. In all, it is estimated that there were 22 halls.
Among the most striking features of the Villa are the mosaics, depicting both mythical figures and, seemingly, portraits of one of the villa’s owners and his children, the latter serving as a bedroom decoration. The word among those who have a study of the villa is that it was built by a leading aristocrat in Roman Thrace.
Mosaics covered all the floors of the villa, a sign of the opulence that the owners clearly could afford. Among the symbols depicted was an arrangement of swastikas, a reminder of the ancient and innocuous origins of the form notoriously perverted by the Nazis. The floor mosaics are enriched by an even greater degree of care and artistry being taken than usual, interweaving geometrical, plant, flora and human forms.
Overall, the part of the villa that was used as a residence and, apparently, also as commercial offices by the people who owned the villa, covers about 2200 sq m, of which the residential part accounted for about 980 sq m. The commercial component, we are told, probably had to do with the livelihood pursued outside the villa’s walls at the time – the processing in and trading in marble.
The whole was heated by a system of underfloor heating, with the heated air emanating from a purpose-built fireplace.
The building had two storeys, although at the moment there is only the surface remainder and a few standing walls and columns.
The villa came to an end as a place of residence and business during the fourth century, at the time of the Visigoth invasion.
Following fighting in 378 around Hadrianopolis, today’s Edirne, emperor Flavius Julius Valens was defeated and fled, attempting to hide. Found by the Visigoths, so one account of his death goes, the wounded Valens was burnt to death in the residence in which he was hiding. Although some view the building to which Ammanius refers to Valens having died in as nothing more than a hut, others prefer to say that it may have been the Villa Armira itself, which has signs of having been severely damaged by fire.
The villa is missing some of its features through theft and through some of them having been transferred elsewhere, to other museums in Bulgaria. Preservation of the site through overhead protection – the steel and glass structure that shelters it and through which visitors tour the site – began about 10 years after the site was discovered.
The latter-day visitor to the site also finds that it is evidence of European Union funds at work. Restoration, done mainly by Bulgarian archeological professors, was done with EU Phare programme financial support, in partnership with Ivailovgrad municipality and the municipality of Kiprinos in Greece.
…and the Via Diagonalis
Not far from the villages of Branitsa and Ovcharovo, at the end of a signposted route, University of Veliko Turnovo professor Boris Borissov is waiting to tell us about the Via Diagonalis.
The remainders of walls and paving that cling obstinately to whatever hold it can retain amid the grass and sand of the hills – and whatever of its place it has held on to in spite of the shovels and tractors that have cleared the way for crops – show what there is to see now of the great road, the Via Diagonalis, that in Roman times connected Rome to the capital city of the Eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople.
The area around Haskovo has some sections of the road, and excavation and restoration work is being done as part of a EU-Bulgaria funded project.
The Romans built such roads following specific techniques, involving the laying of several well-stamped layers of varying composition consisting of ground and drainage stonework, and the surface was covered with stone paving, making it possible for the road surface to remain in part up to today.
Along this Via Diagonalis, not that far from where EU money is also at work improving Bulgaria’s road up to the Turkish border, the Romans placed stations, some simply for changing horses, the others as overnight accommodation or in some cases, garrisoned with Roman soldiers who would do duty protecting and escorting important travellers and goods.
In the final few metres before arriving at the front door of the complex that shelters the villa, the car passes a forlornly unfinished concrete tower, with stalks of rusted steel jutting, sterile, into the sky.
The tower is the only prominent sign of a plan to build a dam on the site, just 1.5km from Ivailovgrad’s Ladzha district (finding the site is not difficult if one follows the signs outside Ivailovgrad). When, in 1964, steel struck the remains of a Roman building, the dam plan evaporated into the realm of projects that forever would remain unfinished.
Estimates are that the villa as we see it now represents the remains of the culmination of the efforts of centuries as the owners of the villa made it ever more elaborate, luxurious and well-fitted for its times.
Archeologists tell us that work on the Villa Armira began some time in the first part of the second century CE during the reign of emperor Adrian, who was in power for about 20 years up to 138.
The villa shares its name with the nearby river Armira, and on a hot May morning such as this one, the villa’s residents must have been grateful for the extensive pool that is embraced by a column-lined gallery within the inner yard.
Around the pool stand the restored remains of a hemstitched marble rail, decorated by small busts of the family that owned the villa.
The main components of the villa include a large entertainment hall – a feast hall, to be more precise, a reception hall, a yard, vestibule, the pool, the owners’ bedroom, dining room and a sauna and bathing facility. In all, it is estimated that there were 22 halls.
Among the most striking features of the Villa are the mosaics, depicting both mythical figures and, seemingly, portraits of one of the villa’s owners and his children, the latter serving as a bedroom decoration. The word among those who have a study of the villa is that it was built by a leading aristocrat in Roman Thrace.
Mosaics covered all the floors of the villa, a sign of the opulence that the owners clearly could afford. Among the symbols depicted was an arrangement of swastikas, a reminder of the ancient and innocuous origins of the form notoriously perverted by the Nazis. The floor mosaics are enriched by an even greater degree of care and artistry being taken than usual, interweaving geometrical, plant, flora and human forms.
Overall, the part of the villa that was used as a residence and, apparently, also as commercial offices by the people who owned the villa, covers about 2200 sq m, of which the residential part accounted for about 980 sq m. The commercial component, we are told, probably had to do with the livelihood pursued outside the villa’s walls at the time – the processing in and trading in marble.
The whole was heated by a system of underfloor heating, with the heated air emanating from a purpose-built fireplace.
The building had two storeys, although at the moment there is only the surface remainder and a few standing walls and columns.
The villa came to an end as a place of residence and business during the fourth century, at the time of the Visigoth invasion.
Following fighting in 378 around Hadrianopolis, today’s Edirne, emperor Flavius Julius Valens was defeated and fled, attempting to hide. Found by the Visigoths, so one account of his death goes, the wounded Valens was burnt to death in the residence in which he was hiding. Although some view the building to which Ammanius refers to Valens having died in as nothing more than a hut, others prefer to say that it may have been the Villa Armira itself, which has signs of having been severely damaged by fire.
The villa is missing some of its features through theft and through some of them having been transferred elsewhere, to other museums in Bulgaria. Preservation of the site through overhead protection – the steel and glass structure that shelters it and through which visitors tour the site – began about 10 years after the site was discovered.
The latter-day visitor to the site also finds that it is evidence of European Union funds at work. Restoration, done mainly by Bulgarian archeological professors, was done with EU Phare programme financial support, in partnership with Ivailovgrad municipality and the municipality of Kiprinos in Greece.
…and the Via Diagonalis
Not far from the villages of Branitsa and Ovcharovo, at the end of a signposted route, University of Veliko Turnovo professor Boris Borissov is waiting to tell us about the Via Diagonalis.
The remainders of walls and paving that cling obstinately to whatever hold it can retain amid the grass and sand of the hills – and whatever of its place it has held on to in spite of the shovels and tractors that have cleared the way for crops – show what there is to see now of the great road, the Via Diagonalis, that in Roman times connected Rome to the capital city of the Eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople.
The area around Haskovo has some sections of the road, and excavation and restoration work is being done as part of a EU-Bulgaria funded project.
The Romans built such roads following specific techniques, involving the laying of several well-stamped layers of varying composition consisting of ground and drainage stonework, and the surface was covered with stone paving, making it possible for the road surface to remain in part up to today.
Along this Via Diagonalis, not that far from where EU money is also at work improving Bulgaria’s road up to the Turkish border, the Romans placed stations, some simply for changing horses, the others as overnight accommodation or in some cases, garrisoned with Roman soldiers who would do duty protecting and escorting important travellers and goods.