Villa dei Quintili site features

The Villa dei Quintili spreads across an open hill in farmland at the fifth mile of the Appia, and the scale registers before any detail does: this is the largest residential complex of the suburbium of Rome, and the brick walls run away across the slope further than a single view takes in.

What survives stands tall and roofless. Great faces of brick-faced concrete rise two and three storeys out of grass, pierced by arched openings and window holes, with the stubs of vaults springing from them and stopping in mid-air.

The first structure you meet looks military. The monumental nymphaeum that once stood in the wide porticoed garden at the Appia Antica entrance was transformed into a fortress in the medieval age, so the approach is guarded by what reads as a small castle.

The house itself climbs the hill in layers. Beyond the garden the main nucleus develops as a series of courtyards and reception rooms, with a large bath complex — the usual tall halls and the brick ribs of hypocaust floors — and buildings for spectacles, and, at the top, rooms of the private residence looking out over the surrounding valley.

And the colour is still on the walls and floors. Where the revetments in slabs of coloured marble survive they are, in the city's words, still splendidly preserved: panels of green, red, yellow and purple stone set in geometric fields, flat against plain brick.

A working farmhouse holds the finds. The modern casale contains the Antiquarium, with sculptural and architectural pieces of great value found during the excavations.

The lead pipe

Bearing the name of the owners — the reason it is certain the villa belonged to the Quintili.

The coloured marble revetments

Wall and floor revetments in slabs of coloured marble, still splendidly preserved.

The monumental nymphaeum

In the wide porticoed garden of the Appia Antica entrance, transformed into a fortress in the medieval age.

The bath complex

A large bath complex in the main nucleus on the hill.

The buildings for spectacles

Part of the main nucleus, alongside the courtyards and reception rooms.

The private rooms

Rooms of the private residence looking out over the surrounding valley.

The Antiquarium

In the modern farmhouse: sculptural and architectural pieces of great value found during the excavations.