The Roman Villa of Casignana is located in the province of Reggio Calabria. The original structure dates back to the 1st century AD and its most significant phase is represented by a major renovation that took place in the 4th century. It was later abandoned in the 5th, but traces of frequentation are visible up to the 7th century.

Location of the Villa Casignana on the sea coast of Calabria. Link to the source: www.locriantica.it

The Maritime Villa

The villa stood on the ancient road connecting Locri Epizefiri and Rhegion (Reggio Calabria). Due to this location on the road, it was initially thought that the Villa was connected to a statio, or that a statio had developed into a villa. However, the discovery in the 90’s of a residential sector with a facade open to the sea and connected to the thermal baths by a large peristyle have proven that the complex represents a residential-type maritime villa, belonging to an extremely wealthy owner.

Due to its richness, the quality and the state of conservation of the structures, the Villa of Casignana  is one of the most important Roman archaeological complexes in southern Italy.

View on the archaeological site. By Marcuscalabresus – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The History of the Discovery

The first documentation of the Villa’ remains are dating back to 1873 – the discovery was made on the occasion of the construction of the railway line on the Ionian coast of Reggio. The first documented finds date back to 1956, when a marble column was occasionally found. Then, the full archaeological area was discovered in 1963, following work for the construction of an aqueduct, near the road. After this date, the villa was systematically excavated and researched. Since 1998, the site has been managed by the municipality of Casignana which, with the acquisition of the neighboring lands, was able to significantly expand the protected area. Today, thanks to the vast archaeological excavations, the Villa and  a large private thermal complex were brought to light.

Lateral view on the room 25 of the Baths. Photo by Michel Gybels.

The Archaeological Site

The villa, positioned perpendicular to the coastline, was built between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD and then restructured at the beginning of the 4th century with a division into two main sectors: A and B to the west and D and H to the east, separated by a peristyle.

The picture below highlights the general plan of the villa: (A – Nymphaeum; B) – Thermal complex including two Baths; C) – Southern Baths; D) – Residential complex; E) – Central courtyard with a portico that overlooks the sea; F) – Large southern building; G) – northern porticoed building; H) northern building. Note that the North direction on this plan is on the right side.

The map of the archaeological site. Source: “Ville residenziali nell’Italia tardoantica: Dati recente e nuove prospettive di ricerca”.

The residential wing must have been splendid, suitable for an important person, a magistrate or a patrician. The owner decided to build two private thermal facilities next to his Villa, adorned with mosaic floors of great value. In addition to floor mosaics, frescoes and wall marble veneers, it was highly likely that Villa at Palazzi di Casignana was decorated with marble statues, all kinds of movable furniture and artworks.

Partial 3D reconstruction of the site. Source: “Modellazione multiscala e multicanale per la comunicazione del patrimonio culturale: la Villa Romana di Palazzi di Casignana”.

Mosaics of the Baths and the Villa

The Baths and the Villa are characterized by an exceptional size and decorative apparatus: more than twenty rooms feature geometric and figurative mosaics and the discovery of glass paste tesserae also suggests the existence of a decoration of the vaults of the main rooms.

One of the most beautiful and refined mosaics can be seen in the two frigidaria of the Baths complex. In particular, mosaics of the “hall of the Nereids” in the frigidarium of the Eastern Baths, dated to the 3rd century, depict a marine thiasos (“thiasos” – a group of worshippers of a god)  with four female figures riding a lion, a bull, a horse and a tiger ending with a fish tail. The room has an octagonal plan and has four apse sides, it also has two cold water pools.

Mosaic in the frigidarium of the Eastern Baths (room 9) with a Nereid on a lion. Photo by Michel Gybels.

General view on the frigidarium of the Eastern Baths. Photo by Michel Gybels.

The Room 25 represents the continuation of the room 9, and also served as the frigidarium of the Eastern Baths. This room is paved with an exquisite marble opus sectile, and features walls covered with marble veneers some of which still stand in place. The smaller tub located on the south side of the room was used for cold baths.

The Room 25 of the Eastern Baths. Photo by Michel Gybels.

The frigidarium of the Western Baths (Room 12) is decorated with geometrical mosaics. It was one of the most opulent and elegant rooms of the entire villa measuring ca. 6 m. x 6 m. The walls of the room were covered with marble veneers, portions of which are still visible today. The central area of Room 12 is paved with an elegant mosaic composed of white, black and green tesserae forming a perspective cube motif. A great quantity of light blue glass tesserae was
found in the room’s debris, suggesting the presence of a blue glass mosaic decorating the vaulted ceiling. The effect must have resembled a blue sky arching above the room, which was enhanced by the reflection of the water contained in the two tubs also situated in this beautiful room.

The frigidarium of the Western Baths (Room 12). Photo by Michel Gybels.

The calidarium of the Eastern Baths, with its hypocaust heating system, also has an octagonal plan and a mosaic floor in small tiles.

The hypocaust of the calidarium of the Eastern Baths. Photo by Michel Gybels.

The floor of Room 36 – which makes part of the Estaren Baths calidarium – rests on suspensurae and is paved with a complex, polychrome geometric mosaic.

Polychrome mosaic of the calidarium of the Eastern Baths (Room 36). Photo by Michel Gybels.

The floor of the room 24 – Calidarium of the Western Baths – was also built on suspensurae and is decorated with a geometric tesselatum. Remains of many glassy tesserae found in the area suggest the presence of another mosaic on the ceiling. On the photo of this room one can also see “tubuli” – tubes running up the walls to distribute heat.

Calidarium of the Western Baths. Photo by Michel Gybels.

The complex contains a beautiful rectangular hall (Room 7) – a dining room. The floor of Room 7 was paved with an elegant polychrome geometric mosaic featuring a four star motif. This room was identified as a triclinium, or dining room, as it is located in a particularly privileged position near the Courtyard and it has a view of the garden on the east side.

Room 7 – perhaps a dining room. Photo by Michel Gybels.

Mosaic pattern of the room 7. Photo by Michel Gybels.

On the opposite side of the road is located the residential part with numerous articulated rooms and a large courtyard.

Room “T” of the residential part of the Villa. Photo by Michel Gybels.

Mosaic Floors in the residential part. Photo by Michel Gybels.

In this residential part of the villa visitors can admire mosaic of the so-called “four seasons” hall. The floor of this room, used for banquets, is decorated with the personified faces of autumn, winter, spring and summer.

Villa romana di Casignana (room B) By Rjdeadly – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.

“Four seasons” mosaic – personification of the summer. By Marcuscalabresus – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The eastern facade of the Villa di Casignana’ residential area, which looks out towards the sea, represented a portico possibly flanked by two towers. The ground level structures of the portico are preserved, including the lower portions of the walls and parts of its polychrome floor mosaic.

Polychrome mosaics of the portico. Source: By Rjdeadly – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Detail of the mosaic in he Portico representing the “Indian Triumph of Dionysus“. By Rjdeadly – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

The site of Casignana is considered the largest of those discovered so far in Calabria, and its importance is significant throughout southern Italy.

Sources:

“The Monumental Villa at Palazzi di Casignana and the Roman Elite in Calabria (Italy) during the Fourth Century AD”. Dissertation by Maria Gabriella Bruni, University of California.

“Modellazione multiscala e multicanale per la comunicazione del patrimonio culturale: la Villa Romana di Palazzi di Casignana”, Atti 13a  Conferenza Nazionale ASITA – Bari 1-4 dicembre 2009

“Ville residenziali nell’Italia tardoantica: Dati recente e nuove prospettive di ricerca”, Carla Sfameni. Piazza Armerina Villa del Casale. Scavi e studi nel decennio 2004-2014, edited by Pensabene Patrizio, Barresi Paolo, pp. 231–256. Roma: L’Erma di Bretschneider, 2019

Source of the header picture: Scavi archeologici non coperti della villa romana di Casignana, By Marcuscalabresus – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Curinga is a small village near Catanzaro in Calabria. The Calabrian area has always been an inexhaustible source of archaeological finds, especially in a well-demarcated area known as the Isthmus of Mercellinara: a narrow strip of land separating the Ionian Sea from the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Roman thermal baths of Acconia di Curinga are situated near the center of the village on a small rural road and the visit is free. They are supposed to be private baths that were part of a large monumental villa, belonging to a very powerful family. Situated near the via Popilia, which led from Rome to Reggio Calabria,  Curinga Roman Baths it is the only example of the use of Roman Africa’s construction techniques in Italy

Map of the Via Popilia. Public Domain

History of the Complex

The thermal complex of Acconia di Curinga is situated in the alluvial plain, shaped by the estuaries of Amato and Angitola rivers, in a very populated region since the Roman times.

Acconia region and Curinga on the Map of the Isthmus of Marcellinara. Source: Openstreetmap

The complex was built during the Imperial era and features various rooms like the frigidarium, the tepidarium and caldarium. The building, wrongly identified in ancient literature as the temple of Castor and Pollux, underwent scientific examination only from the 1960s onwards.

Appearance of the Curinga site in the 1960’s, before the excavations. Source: Klearchos magazine, 1966.

The discovered materials and analyzed masonry techniques corroborate the thesis that the baths were refurbished between the 3rd and the 4th century, and the monument remained in use until the end of the 6th century, serving different purposes.

View on the Baths complex. Photo by Michel Gybels.

The Archaeological Survey 

The visible parts of the complex occupy an area of about 1000 square meters, even if preliminary investigations suggest a planimetric development, and thus land occupation, of at least twice as much. The structure consists of service and utility rooms. The first ones are located on the south-eastern side and are overall six praefurnia, functional to heating air and water. The second ones, starting from the South to the North are caldaria (marked by the letter “C” on the plan below), tepidaria (letter “T”), and a frigidarium (F). A rectangular room, interpreted until today as an atrium or gymnasium (“Atria” on the plan), could correspond to a natatio, according to new excavations. In the almost symmetrical layout, one could distinguish the rooms used by women from those used by men.

Plan of the Curinga Baths. Source: Intervento di valorizzazione e tutela delle Terme Romane di Curinga.

The Rooms

The entrance to the baths was probably on the northern side, where the last excavation campaign revealed several wall structures with an uncertain function. The frigidarium is the largest room in the baths, it has a rectangular shape and it includes two large exedras. The roof consisted of a wide central cross vault, ending with two arches set on quadrangular pillars that connected the space with the two exedras, covered by small domes. The internal face of the walls of the exedras were interrupted by three semicircular niches, carved into the masonry, that probably hosted some statues.

The view on the exedra of the frigidarium from the exterior of the Baths. Photo by Michel Gybels.

From the frigidarium there was an access to a small rectangular room, surrounded on three sides by other spaces: it was a tepidarium, in which acclimatization to the higher temperatures took place. It constituted, both functionally and architecturally, the connecting element between the frigidarium and the rest of the baths complex. Given the state of preservation of the building, bathing paths, related to the functions of each hall, can only be proposed as a hypothesis. The latest excavations have revealed a series of pillars that may belong to the peristyle of a probable gymnasium. The service rooms are all located on the southern and south-eastern side of the building.

A rectangular structure formerly believed to be a gymnasium is probably a pool – a natatio. Photo by Michel Gybels.

On the South side there is a corridor, which allowed the loading of the pre-sufornia for the southern basins of the calidaria. The corridor was accessible through a door on the western side of the wall with three steps, which make it clear that these rooms were located below the floor levels and away from the view of those who used the structure. The corridor has a well-preserved cobblestone pavement.

View on the southern part of the Baths complex. Photo by Michel Gybels.

Building Technique

The building technique that characterizes the first phase of the building is opus testaceum, as face of the wall structures. The bricks used in Curinga are between 3.5 and 4 cm high, varying in colour from bright red to yellow and alternating with mortar. A disastrous event affected the thermal complex in ancient times.

Example of the Opus Testaceum.

This is testified by a massive restoration intervention, both structural and conservative, characterized by a new type of building technique. That was a wall made of horizontal lithic elements alternating with bricks that were probably re-used.

The later wall re-built in opus vittatum using bricks and stones .

Another restoration of the baths, occurred in the 3rd and 4th century, was aimed at the structural reinforcement of the apse of the east caldarium, which was replaced by a curvilinear wall. Between the middle of the 4th century and the beginning of the 5th century the thermal complex was disused and lost its function.

Conclusion 

The construction of the thermal complex of Acconia di Curinga is part of a lively construction activity around the middle of the 2nd century. Its presence is also confirmed by the contemporary structures found in the Roman neighborhood of Santa Aloe in the nearby city of Vibo Valentia, an area where archaeological investigations have shown the presence of building facilities together with bath facilities, attributable to the middle of the 2nd century. It is still unclear whether the baths were public or private. Probably they were part of a private villa, but other hypotheses reveal that the thermal baths could be connected to a public building.

Gone into disuse probably for the extinction of the family that owned it, the structure was transformed during the first half of the sixth century and it was used as a place of Christian worship. The building, especially the frigidarium, well suited as a place of worship for the presence of pools that could be used as baptismal fonts.

Bibliography 

MEDRI M. – PIZZO A. (a cura di), Le terme pubbliche nell’Italia romana (II secolo a.C. – fine IV d.C). Architettura, tecnologia e società, Seminario Internazionale di Studio, Roma 4-5 Ottobre 2018, Roma 2019

CESAREO C.N., Le Terme Romane di Acconia di Curinga (IV sec. d.C.). Sintesi di bellezza e ingegneria, in «Lamezia Storica», numero 1, Agosto 2022