The complex, dating back to the I century A.D., rises on a hill top with respect to the facing the plain enough to situarla in a position favorable climatically and of remarkable panoramic interest, ranging from the moraine of Rivoli, Pirchiriano, the mountain of the Alta Valle di Susa, Rocciamelone and the more gentle slopes of Colle del Lys.
The villa, the largest private building of roman age of Northern Italy, was a vast complex of approximately 5,000 square meters and developed on multiple levels, while the villa had two floors built around a large central courtyard porch, surrounded by rooms on three sides. The articulation of these environments is only in part that can be reconstructed from the traces of the foundation walls and by the architectural material precipitates downstream in the collapse that has destroyed the villa, probably in the IV century A.D.
All Masonry were plastered: in the lower floor with rough plasters, while the upper floor with painted plaster work. This distinction suggests a residential environments of the first floor, while the ground floor, more modest, seems to have been in use to the servitude, or to those who worked to the dependencies of the owners. The floors were variously made with mosaics, potsherd to flakes of stone white and colored or in simple Malta on the crawl space.
The specific context in which the villa of Almese fits, increases and at the same time allows to better define its importance. The villa is located, in fact, at a very early stage of the Romanization, on the margins of the Strada delle Gallie which is at the origin of the deduction of the colony of Augusta Taurinorum, in the immediate vicinity of the statio ad fines (Drubiaglio of Avigliana) that of the Romanization of the area must have been a nodal point.
The actions undertaken by the Municipality and other agencies in the course of the years have led to the preparation of the visit and the systematic opening to the public of the Roman villa, with particular attention to schools, for which it is foreseen the possibility of guided visits in the course of the week.
arca.almese@gmail.com