The History of the Villa in the Middle Ages HIST 307

28 November 2000 Tiffany L. Burke

Senior Architecture/History majors

The History of the Villa in the Middle Ages Tiffany L. Burke

28 November 2000

Medieval times were also known as the Dark Ages. During this time the elements

that held the town together architecturally and socially were the walls and the churches.

There was a decline in major city populations to move on to the new hill towns. The city

of Rome itself at this time was in downfall. The wealth came to the city from the outside

by other non-Romans. Wealth also came to Rome from booty gained from the many

battles fought to expand the empire. The Romans themselves were in a time of

intellectual decay. They entertained themselves by watching barbarian-like games in the

Coliseum and relied on other outside workers for their major income.

Rome’s architecture, Etruscan in its origin, had been gradually enriched by

additions from Magna Graecia, Sicily, Attica, and Asia Minor. Accordingly at the

commencement of the imperial era, it exhibited a blending of arts differing in their

principles and in their form. Not far from Rome, on the slope of the mountains that

separate ancient Latium from the country of the Volsci, and near a small town called

Lanuvium, you might be able to see a villa of moderate size recently built for a wealthy

patrician. (VLD, 227)

This villa comprises a large extent of land, occupied partly by vineyards and

woods, and consisting of open fields in the plain, cultivated by coloni. The villa can be

reached by traveling along the Appian Way, Rome’s oldest surviving road. The grounds

of the villa rise abruptly towards the northwest, so that the principal building is sheltered

from the violent winds coming from the sea, and large gusts of wind from the north.

The villa is built with multiple vestibules and waiting rooms. That the owner

would need such extensive waiting rooms is a note of his high stature. The villa is also

decorated with marble columns and bronze statues in the exedra at the north end of the

interior courtyard, where people may rest and converse in the sunshine. The dining room

or triclinium is actually quite large where fifteen to eighteen guests may be easily

accommodated. (There is also another small triclinium that seems to be for private uses.)

There is also a vaulted library flanked by yet another vaulted room serving as a place for

the family to gather during the heat of the day, and allowing this to be a cool and lofty

room. (VLD, 231) Also included in the villa are a bath complex, kitchen, and slave

dormitories. The servant dormitories, being strategically placed close to the kitchen,

were quickly accessible to all the main service rooms. The second floor is where the

bedrooms are, which acquired a beautiful view of the garden below and to the Volscian

Mountains in the distance.

Figure 1: Plan of Roman Villa

This is just one brief example of a villa complex that was occupied by the upper

class nobility in the early first and second centuries. There was a great hatred and

competition between nobles during this time. Nobles were moving out of the city and

into the countryside to build larger and more magnificent villas in competition with their

neighbors. (Gutkind, 67) The response of the city was to make these prominent families

live in the cities for one year by law. “In other cases, at least one family member had to

live in town for a month.” (Gutkind, 73) This ended with the nobles being forced to live

within the city walls. Although this happened, it did not eliminate the noble feuds which

now percolated inside the walls of the city and still in the villas abound which did not go

as abandoned as thought.

Rome’s Empire witnessed a Golden Age of architecture. It was an

architecture that kept the traditional forms of the Greeks, the colonnade and the

architectural ornament, but used them freshly and purposefully in countless new settings,

including private residences and villas of the countryside. Country houses were plentiful

throughout the rich agricultural terrain of France and the low countries. The corridor

villa, familiar in Germany, France and England, was native to the continent and was later

exported across the Channel. “The tripartite design of the corridor villa, with four or

more rooms behind the main stone corridor, with timber posts and roof supports, was

characteristic not only of first-century Britain, but also of continental housing in general.

Built on stone and rubble foundations, with plastered surfaces inside and out, the two

story version of the corridor villa resembled an embryonic Tudor-style mansion.”

(McKay, 184) The entire estate is normally contained within a rectangular frame of wall

or of mound and ditch combined. It usually included a cellar with barrel vaults and,

during the second century, a modest bath suite with a hypocaust heating system was

installed.

Figure 2: Elevations of a Roman Villa

The smaller villas were usually restricted to a single courtyard and a single main

house. A projecting wing at one end, or both, of the front corridor provided the basis for

new symmetry in design. The entrance was normally central. The end rooms offered

additional, semi-private accommodation and verandahs, a break with the pattern of rooms

opening off the controlling corridor. Larger properties had the manor house occupying

the forecourt of the site with service and administrative buildings ranged along the sides

of the outer court. Villa properties of a larger, more considerable scale and opulence

started with the first century AD and became more numerous and even more elegant

during the second and third centuries.

In northern France and Picardy there was a remarkable consistency in the layout

of Gallo-Roman estates. There is almost always a small square structure that breaks,

towards the middle, and a low wall separating two courtyards. These small villas adhered

to a busy agricultural/industrial schedule concentrating on wheat and sheep-raising during

the spring and winter, and on wool production, possibly even iron-working, during the

long winters. (McKay, 168) Tenant farmers and slaves would supply the work force until

the end of this impressive time of the villas.

CVillas contained many architectural compositions within the framework of the

building structure itself. Such examples of this are baths and, with the Christianization of

Western Europe, small in-house chapels. (Predecessors to the chapels were several pagan

shrines within the villa.) These architectural constructions were miniature versions of

their larger counterparts found within the Roman cities. Later villa bath suites would

include large heated pools, a grand procession of rooms (including the frigidarium where

the cold waters were located, caldarium where the hot vapor was, and tepidarium

intended for warm baths) many of which were apsidal, and flush toilets. Usually, where

funds were available, house owners had hypocaustic or radiant heating. Many of the later

baths were located far enough from the main villa as not to set fire to it, should a fire

break out within the bath complex. The baths were lavishly constructed with marble in

the colonnades, doorways, wall veneers and flooring. They always faced a southern

direction to consume as much sunlight as possible

mosaic pavement pattern that was most carefully e

complexes. There were almost always separate qu

villa-bath suite.

Figure 3: Bath interior, Pompeii, Italy

to heat it. There was also usually a

xecuted on the floors of the bath

arters for men and women within the

Within the villa there always seemed to be a procession for which people, both

prominent and service, walk through. Such an example of this would be at the Villa

Avitacum or the shores of Lac d’Aydat where the ladies’ bath suite quarters connect to

the ladies dining room and eventually conveniently to the textrinum or weaving room,

which was a common responsibility for ladies of the time. Another common example of

this, which is later used in many ducal palaces, is the procession to the presence of the

lord of the estate. The visitor must walk through a series of several vestibules, an

audience chamber, a dining hall, a salon, another vestibule or perhaps two, before finally

arriving to the final room of the Lord’s bedroom. Only those closest to him would be

allowed here. Even his won wife usually had her own series of rooms, usually on another

wing of the villa.

Certain rooms of villas are placed in specific areas that will benefit the views that

extend from them. At the Villa Avitacum, the dining room proceeds on into the living

room. This living room is then open to the lake that is on the magnificent site. This

room is placed there to preserve the view and dramatically place it within the villa. If

you chose not to pleasure your eyes with the view, you could also have chosen to proceed

into the drawing room, which conveniently faces north so that no sunlight will enter into

the room as to fade the valuable drawings and books/parchment placed in here. Within

this room, besides the drawings and books, such precious objects as manuscripts, statues,

and pictures would also usually

Figure 4: View of Triclinium (dining room)

be kept. It was a fashion with the Roman aristocracy to collect such objects that eastern

cultures such as Athens continually produced, and for which the Romans would pay very

much for in return. (VLD, 235)

Another kind of eye candy for the villa viewer was the various mosaics and

frescos that appear within these structures. The finest mosaics, whether Christian or

pagan in association, derive from the properties where there are house chapels and bath

suites on site. Multiple ¼” colored square tiles placed carefully in magnificent patterns

creating not just geometric floor patterns, but also scenes of wildlife, gods (later Jesus

and saints), and daily life. Living rooms were decorated with fresco paintings of floral

and geometric patterns, scenes of the gods and daily life – a lot of our knowledge of how

a common individual lived is derived from within these paintings. A wall painting of

such was found near the Basilica of Trier and it illustrates our notions of country villa life

in the northern provinces. The painting has been interpreted as representing the façade

of a porticoed villa with projecting wings and a landscaped garden behind. The tenant

farmers there are pictured in the act of offering their lord and master gifts or rent in kind

including fur or skins; a four-wheeled wagon, drawn by mules, with corded bales of cloth

or woolen goods. (McKay, 176)

The villas also went

this time. A good example o

villa, a peristyle mansion of

addition of a garden court b

summer-house overlooking

third phase of the villa’s his

and architectural advancem

quarries to build the new fo

the baths and the Trajan cou

wing provided an apsidal tr

Figure 5.1: Mosaic. Naples, Italy

through m

f this is i

Augusta

ordered b

the River

tory, from

ent. The

untain co

rt, and a

iclinium,

Figure 5.2: Frescoed ceiling. Verona, Italy.

ultiple technological transformations throughout

n the Villa Chiragan near the Pyrenees. The original

n date, was enlarged in Trajanic times by the

y a cryptoportici which led to a small hexagonal

Garonne. Of the three phases to the villa, the

AD 150-200, was the period of its greatest refinery

architect used Pyrenees marble from the St B⎡at

urt, together with two miniature ‘dower houses’ near

whole new quarter south-east of the baths. The new

similar to the dining room at a Roman villa in Kent,

an atrium, yet another enclosed green space with an exedra, and a second summerhouse.

(McKay, 169)

A gallery of selected imperial portraits, from Augustus to Septimius Severus,

unearthed in a fifth-century deposit on the property, probably indicates that the second or

third century owner of the villa was either an imperial official or a very patriotic

individual with exceptional means. The former of the two is probably the more likely

scenario rather than the latter, because it was usually high imperial officers and senate

officials who had the means to fund such a villa in the countryside. McKay states,

“though some of the villa owners may have been speculators from of other provinces or

their agents, and others retired centurions from the garrison, the vast majority were the

wealthier members of native British civitates. The very simplicity and slow development

of the majority of early villas make this clear.” (McKay, 186)

The final phase of Chiragan’s history during the fourth century highlights the agricultural

side. Four sets of buildings extend from the Trajanic cryptoporticus: a series of stalls

capable of housing thirty yoke of oxen; twenty residences for the rustic familia, capable

of housing about a hundred families with their working equipment; eleven workshops

largely devoted to weaving; and a fourth set of buildings, set at right angles to the others

and parallel with the cryptoporticus with barns and sheds facing on to a three-sided

barnyard. The ultimate villa covered 10 acres and contained almost two hundred rooms!

(McKay, 167) Chiragan is the second-largest villa to be excavated in France to date.

Figure 6: Site Plan of Villa Chiragan

Farmhands were replaced by staff and tenants, also known as coloni, who lived on

farms that were removed from the main house. Although they owed labor and payment

in produce to the master, they undoubtedly enjoyed a bit more independence than their

slave predecessors did. The main property, which was under the direct surveillance of

the manor house, had a large farmyard on its side and housing for the farmhands. Storage

buildings were also on site.

Protection against invasion was a natural part of villa life. Turrets and look out

marks were very common on the estate. First and second floor windows were usually

quite small in comparison with the lavish second and sometimes third floor fenestration.

But even with all this precaution, the lifespan of the enhanced villa was abruptly and

drastically shortened by the barbarian destruction of AD 276.

Barbarian ‘villas’ were actually huts and halls of timber with wattle and daub and

dry stone cottages with thatched roofs, hardly even comparable to their Roman

counterparts. The structure consisted of wooden supports set at regular intervals along

lines marking the sidewalls, with two rows of wider posts dividing the interior into a

central naive and two narrower flanking aisles, enabling the roof timbers to span the

width. The outer rows of posts are supplied with angled struts, which resembled flying

buttresses to help take the weight and even, in a wind, take the thrust of the roof. (Fernie,

13)

The walls of wattle and daub are sharply differentiated from the posts themselves,

as they had no load bearing function, serving only to keep out the wind and rain while

defining the interior space. The corners of the building were for the most part rounded

and the entrances were situated on both the long and short faces. There were commonly

no windows either, until much later on.

Heating was provi

barbarian hall history. Ins

structure like the villa, the

and in some cases there w

Almost all the sma

without aisles. An examp

Figure 7: Anglo-Saxon hall structure

ded by a hearth in the central room throughout most of the

tead of there being multiple extravagant rooms throughout this

re was commonly only just the one room – the whole building,

as a living space at one end and a barn at the other.

ller buildings were built on the same lines as the hall, but

le of this smaller structure has a central room in the shape of a

double square, with a doorway in the center of each long wall and a square annex on each

of the short walls. Some of these smaller huts also have a floor below ground level.

(Fernie, 19) At a site excavated in Cheddar, there is evidence of a second floor

construction. Proof that such floors existed is illustrated by an account in the Anglo-

Saxon Chronicle for the year AD 978. Fernie states, “the collapse of the second floor at

Calne, which deposited King Edward and all his councilors on the ground beneath, all

that is, except for the lucky Dunstan who found himself standing on the a surviving

joist!” (21) Actual villa construction, per say, is unclear at this time. There are no

standing domestic buildings in stone, and only one or two have been excavated, the

earliest of which is that at Kingsbury, Old Windsor, around AD 800. This technique was

definitely quite barbaric in comparison with the Roman villa, but this modus operandi

was not accepted and used commonly throughout Europe. When the barbarians struck

villa construction was still utilized in many areas.

Figure 8: Anglo-Saxon Double Story hall

To try to find a comparison of the preceding villas to ones in Eastern Europe and

Greece is quite a handy task, because the Greeks do not construct private buildings of

such pretensions. Secondly, because the villas as they were generally executed under

Roman inspiration and for Romans, they do not differ sensibly from building

constructions in Italy. Formerly the houses of the wealthiest Athenians were, as

compared with our villa, very small and extremely simple outside, exemplifying beauty

only on the interior of the structure. (VDL, 245) The Athenian was accustomed to live

out of doors, and only went home to take his meals with his family and a few intimate

friends, or to pass the night. He had, therefore, no need of galleries, vast courts, great

porticoes, and spacious halls such as the ones found in Rome and the Roman imperial

provinces. The simple ancient dwellings of Athens cannot therefore, be compared to the

grand villa of Rome.

But there are areas throughout Western Europe that have a close comparison with

the more common villa typology. In Great Britain, during the late Flavian times Romano-

British villas tended to be simplified versions of the villas of Italy, with central heating,

mosaic floors, and painted walls in the some cases. Although many areas in the north and

west of Britain were devoid of villas during the Roman occupation, there were also many

grand villas constructed in the south and east. Some of the most notable were in southern

Britain, Salisbury Plain, Cranborne Chase and Fen Basin.

Figure 9: Rebuilt Romano-British villa on original stone foundations.

The earliest villas were usually of simple plan, consisting of no more than a range

of single story rooms, perhaps united by a verandah extending the length of the building.

Local materials were invariably used in the construction. (Wacher, 49) Flint sleeper walls

served to elevate the wooden frame some two to three feet above the ground and so

reduced the danger of wood-rot. Walls were often two feet thick, with quoins of brick or

tile, sometimes eve articulated stonework. Doors were usually massive oak

constructions, studded with nails and spears of bronze. Windows with square or rounded

heads were normally well above street level, again this was for protection purposes. Roof

gables and ends were often decorated with some sort of ornament or finial in either stone

or clay.

Interior light

and from ‘picture w

Otherwise the darkn

candles. Water was

aqueducts in the cou

a

Figure 10: Early Middle Ages Vill

ing during daytime hours came from upper windows, from doorways

indows’ opening on to interior courtyards and peristyle gardens.

ess could be relieved if not dispelled by pottery oil lamps and

normally available from district fountains, wells, or branch

ntryside. Internal plumbing was taken advantage of in the villas by

using surplus water to flush the drains. There were also in many cases stone constructed

sewers to receive waste from the villas.

Flooring was an interesting challenge for Britain. Wooden floors were a constant

fire hazard and liable to rot because of the damp weather conditions, but they were still

used above the ground level. For the ground level floor construction, mosaic tiling has

been found in abundance. If the owner could afford it, there would be hypocaustic

heating in at least one room outside the bath suite. Otherwise they resorted to braziers

with lighted wood charcoal or tiled open hearths, but these were seen as very rare.

(Wacher, 199)

The hypocaustic system was seen as more common than a fireplace at this time.

Its engineered design is actually quite interesting. A cavity is constructed below the floor

and connected to a furnace in an outside wall at foundation level. The heat and gases

generated here circulated under the floor, warmed it, and passed up small chimney flues

imbedded within the walls. The flues were made of box shaped tiles, these actually look

Figure 11: Personal sketch. Bath heating system. Ostia, Italy.

like hollow bricks, cramped into the walls and covered by another wall material that is

resurfaced and then either mosaic tiled or frescoed.

The majority of villas were sited near valley bottoms, or on the lower slopes of

hills. Though there were exceptions to this, this seemed to be the rule in Britain.

Consequently most villas would have only been seen from their surrounding hills, unless

situated on limestone or a sufficient edge, where they would have been visible for far

greater distances and thus exerted a greater impact on the landscape. Only seven

examples of villas have been positively identified in Brigantia, and most of these cling to

the strip of magnesian limestone which flanks the eastern edge of the Pennines. The rock

created a very fertile soil and had been heavily settled in the Iron Age. (Wacher, 102)

The houses themselves provided form, texture, and color. Based on rectangles or

squares, a shape unknown to nature, they would have cut across the natural contours of

the ground and vegetation, thus creating an immediately visible contrast.

By the second century villas were becoming larger and more elaborate; a few

possessed mosaics and bath wings, while the basic architectural form was changing. In

many cases they now had wings projecting from the ends of the main ranges of rooms.

Where suitable stone was available, verandah posts of wood were replaced by small

columns; thatched roofs probably gave way to more permanent tiles or slates. (Wacher,

50)

Around AD 330, the most distinguished of the early country mansions of Roman

Britain is constructed at Fishbourne. It is a Flavian palace near Chichester in Sussex.

The earliest timber building probably served as a military installation during the invasion

period. This grand establishment was clearly meant to accommodate a person or persons

of high rank.

The whole villa is a masterpiece of decorat

black and white mosaic, and a marvelously landsc

paths, hedges, fountains, and basins. The plan is t

the portico which is the connecting unit dominates

living and entertaining quarters were located. The

and bathhouse and two larger peristyle courts. Th

at the center that dominates the entire design. Thi

which he would have his guests meet him in such

the showpiece of Roman Britain.

The villa contained multiple architectural m

was a room within it obviously devoted to a pagan

around AD 350, converted into a house church or c

bath complex was linked to the house by a mosaic

provided the normal arrangements and hypocausti

the south wall, taking advantage of the sunlight, il

Figure 11: Arial view of the Villa atFishbourne

ion: walls of marble veneer, floors of

aped formal garden furnished with

he familiar winged corridor-house, but

two other colonnaded courts where the

east wing contains the entrance hall

e west wing has an audience chamber

s is evidence of a wealthy owner, of

a chamber. This great villa has become

asterpieces within its walls. There

water goddess, which was later,

hapel complex. (McKay, 192) The

-floored corridor. The bath suite

c heating. Small windows were set into

luminated the main rooms. These

windows also allowed the guest a view of the magnificent gardens abound outside and

acres of farmland. These gardens grew to their lavish splendor by being aided by

technical improvements in agricultural machinery and by better transport, which enabled

produce to be marketed more easily. Land could be cleared and cultivated, woods

managed and crops and stocks improved by careful selective breeding. But by 400 the

declining villa, with its Christian chapel still active, was set afire by barbarians.

The first half of the fourth century was the zenith of the villa system. Although

very large villas like Fishbourne survived until the end of the fourth century, it is still not

possible to discern the ownership tenant pattern. We can assume that they were centers

of large estates and in some cases we can point to smaller villas whose land possibly lay

within their compass, and where owners may have been tenants or managers. (Wacher,

104) But it is pointless to take the discussion any further with our present knowledge.

What we do know is that by the middle of the fourth century the prosperity of Britain and

the villas in particular had peaked, and had already perhaps started to decline. With the

withdrawal of Roman arms, and the collapse of the central government, the roads,

aqueducts, drains, etc., the villas began to fall into disrepair and disuse.

Matters culminated in 367 with the barbarian conspiracy, when the Picts, Scots,

Franks, and Saxons acted in concert to attack Britain. A year later the towns seemed to

have escaped without d due to their more

exposed positions fair

damage, but the villas, as might be expecteFigure 12: The height of the Middle Ages villa - Villa Nennig, France

ed slightly less well off. (Wacher, 107)

The Middle Ages proved to be a time of ups and downs for the construction of the

villa. From the rise of the Roman villa, and fall with the barbarian invasions, it

underwent many improvements and advancements. None so far are the advancements

that are to come from the Renaissance villa. Such phenomenal architects as Andrea

Palladio and Michelangelo have created some of the most astounding pieces of villa

architecture ever imagined.

Figure 13: Villa Emo. Venezia, Italy.

From this time onward man set out on his long march toward individual self

expression and individual responsibility in a world that grew more and more impersonal,

destroying old bonds and old ideas until he finally had lost wholeness and had become a

lonely individual in a depersonalized world. The really revolutionary idea of the high

Renaissance was the awareness hardly felt by the masses that a new rebellious force was

at work that this time would reshape the world. An example of this is Andrea Palladio’s

Villa Rotunda. The perfect geometrical shapes in plan and the grand dome in elevation

are combined a pedemented portico at all four facades, (which was earlier associated with

temple structure). There is also a great understanding of proportioning and hierarchy

within his La Villa Rotunda. The movement from the baroque and renaissance was a

decomposition in construction creating a horizontal and vertical development.

Through these time periods, the Middle Ages – Renaiss

Baroque, I have seen that history is just one period in time whic

sometimes extremely rebellious way. As time progresses so do

morphosize and evolve into a different species. “For if we allo

guided by reason, we destroy the premise that life is possible at

Peace)

Figure 14: Villa Rotunda. Vicenza, Italy.

ance – and later the

h leads to the next in a

es architecture

w that life is always

all.” (Tolstoy, War and