The Verige Roman Villa is a villa rustica located in the bay of Verige off the coast of Istria, within Croatia’s Brijuni National Park. The Brijuni archipelago includes 14 small islands famous for their scenic beauty. In Roman times, numerous villae rusticae adorned the coast of these islands, referred to by Pliny the Elder as Insulae Pullariae. The villa’s construction began in the 1st century BC, reaching its heyday in the 1st century AD. Some parts of the estate were used until the 6th century.
The fall of the Illyrian capital of Nesactium in 177 BC marked the onset of a long period of Roman rule, which brought considerable economic, social and cultural changes to the entire Istrian peninsula, including the Brijuni Islands. The Roman navy found on the Brijuni Islands a safe and natural shelter. The Romans built many luxurious summer residences and palaces where they could relax and live from the products they produced.
The senatorial Laecanii family owned the villa and probably came under imperial ownership in the 2nd half of the 1st century AD. It is said to be among the three most luxurious villas in the Roman Empire, alongside a Villa in Pompeii and another one on the island of Capri. The villa consisted of several buildings of residential and economic character situated in different parts of the bay. The villa also had a library, three-level terraces and huge gardens. The whole complex covered an area of over six hectares.
Along with the luxurious villa, constituent parts of the complex also included three temples (to the sea god Neptune, the Capitoline Triad and the goddess Venus) and a palaestra. All these buildings were connected by colonnaded promenades stretching one kilometre along the sea, in harmony with the landscape. The other areas dedicated to production activities and the thermae were on the other side of the bay.
This villa was lavishly decorated with mosaic floors, frescoes, stucco decorations, and precious marble.
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1924 artistic reconstruction of the Verige Roman Villa.The foundations of the Verige Roman Villa.
Brijuni coastal villa and residential area reconstruction (BEGOVIĆ DVORŽAK, 1990).The Temple of Venus.
The Temple of Venus.The columns of the Temple of Venus.The ruins of one of the monumental porticoes facing the bay.The production part of the Villa.The Thermae.The Thermae.
Located in the village of Nennig in the delightful Upper Moselle Valley, the Roman Villa Nennig (German: Römische Villa Nennig) houses a richly illustrated gladiatorial mosaic, one of the most important Roman artefacts north of the Alps. Protected by a dedicated building built about 150 years ago and covering an area of roughly 160m2, the mosaic vividly portrays musicians, hunting scenes and gladiatorial contests.
In the 3rd century AD, the mosaic paved the atrium (reception hall) of a large villa urbana which a wealthy Roman had built on the road between Divodurum (Metz) and Augusta Treverorum (Trier). The mosaic later disappeared below ground until it was discovered by chance by a farmer in 1852. The excavations conducted between 1866 and 1876 revealed only a part of the once splendid and extensive ground, the foundation walls of the imposing central building, and several adjacent buildings. A coin of Commodus (struck ca. 192) found under the mosaic during the restorations of 1960 dates the villa’s construction to the end of the 2nd century or the beginning of the 3rd century AD.
The villa complex included a bath house with heated rooms, small pavilions and magnificent gardens. A two-storied colonnaded portico (140 m long) flanked by three-storied tower wings with massive walls ran across the façade of the main building. Beyond these, at either side, two temple-pedimented structures flanked the villa.
General view of the Roman Villa Nennig (reconstructed according to Mylius).
The mosaic comprises seven octagonal medallions surrounding two central quadrangles, one decorated with a scene of gladiatorial combat, the other occupied by a marble basin. An elaborate pattern of geometrical designs borders each scene. Walking around the interior of the protective building, the entire scene of the mosaic can be viewed from a raised platform.
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The foundation remains of the Roman villa in Nennig.The foundation remains of the Roman villa in Nennig.Octagon depicting an organist and horn player. The beginning and the end of the Roman games were often accompanied by music. The mosaicist has depicted the water organ (hydraulis), known in the ancient world since 300 BC. The 27 organ pipes rest on a hexagonal podium that also stores water for the organ. The organist plays the keyboard situated behind the pipes. The curved horn, which is braced and supported on the shoulder of the player by a crossbar, is a cornu.Octagon depicting a Javelin thrower with a panther. The games usually began with venationes (beast hunts) and bestiarii (beast fighting) gladiators. Here the beast is wounded by the venator’s spear and tries to pull the javelin out. It only succeeds in breaking it in half. Delighted with his success, the proud venator received the crowd’s acclamation.Octagon depicting a tiger attacking a wild ass. Another variety of venatio consisted of putting animals against animals. In this scene, a wild ass, laid low by blows from the tiger’s paw, has fallen to the ground. Standing proudly, the victor of this unmatched contest looks around before starting his bloody feast.Octagon depicting a resentful lion being led away by his aged keeper. This was the first of the illustrated panels to be discovered in 1852.Octagon depicting two rogues trying to drive the animal off with lashes from their whips. A bear has thrown one of his tormentors to the ground while the other two attempt to drive the animal off. The venatores are wearing knee-breeches and very broad belts in addition to the leg wrappings. Later their clothing was reduced to the tunica.Octagon depicting two combatants attacking one another with cudgels and a whip. The introduction to the gladiatorial contests consisted of a prolusio (prelude). The various pairs of gladiators fought with blunted weapons, giving the foretaste of their skills.Rectangular panel depicting a Retiarus armed with a trident and dagger fighting against a Secutor while a referee looks on. In the afternoon came the high point of the games; individual gladiatorial combats. These were usually matches between gladiators with different types of armour and fighting styles, supervised by a referee (summa rudis). This scene simultaneously represents the highlight and the conclusion of the games.Following restorations in 1960/61, the following text was inserted: This Roman mosaic floor was discovered in 1852, reconstructed in 1874 and restored in 1960. The original medallion has been destroyed, perhaps intentionally, by later villa’s occupants.General view of the Nennig Mosaic.
The Saarland and Moselle Valley’s ancient Roman heritage has much to offer tourists and scholars. More than 120 antique sights along the Moselle and the Saar rivers, the Saarland and Luxembourg are testaments to the Gallo-Roman era north of the Alps (further information here).
Opening hours:
April – September: Tuesday to Sunday 8:30 am – 12 noon and 1 – 6 pm
October, November and March: Tuesday to Sunday 9 – 11:30 am and 1 – 4:30 pm
Closed from December to February and on Mondays
The Roman Mosaic at Nennig: A Brief Guide (n.d.) by Reinhard Schindler
Eckart Köhne, Cornelia Ewigleben, Ralph Jackson, Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000
following hadrian photography 