Villa

In Roman architecture, the name of a farm or country house or a farming residence with luxurious private, urban, and humble rural dwellings. In the Roman context, the farmstead had ancillary buildings and one main residential structure. In a Minoan context, a villa was a rural residence with some local administrative functions. The residential villas were often in an area of beauty or on the seashore. Many villas existed throughout the Roman Empire, and references to them are common in the works of Roman writers, especially Cicero, who had seven villas, and Pliny, who described his villas in Tuscany and near Laurentum. The most famous villa is Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli (c 120-130 AD).

Roman country dwelling, probably always with some connection with local agriculture. Early examples may have been in all essentials equivalent to farms, having house, workshops, stables and animal quarters. They seem to have been run either by small farmers in persons, or by slave-farmers on behalf of an absentee landlord. From the 2nd century bc onwards, examples begin to occur which have less emphasis upon farming, and more on the function of country house for the urban rich. It is likely, however, that even lavish imperial versions still retained a ‘homeproduce’ side, even if only to serve the tastes of the owner. Various architectural types occur, two of the commonest being the courtyard house, and a corridor-cum-towers model.