THE ROMAN VILLAS IN THE VILLAGE OF LA MEZZALUNA

The town of Mezzaluna, in the municipality of Mentana, in ancient times, was part of the vast territory controlled by the Roman municipality of Nomentum. Here, as in the whole of the ager Nomentanus and outside the urban centre proper, we must imagine, from the third century B.C. to at least the third century A.D., a succession of villae rusticae, tombs and trade support buildings.

Especially in the 2nd-3rd centuries AD, almost every small hill housed a Roman villa. Served by the main roads, the villas were often built near sources that fed the thermal environments, equipped with imposing cisterns for water collection and were adorned with artistic works of great value.

The materials on display come from two Roman villas that were the subject of research in the town of Mezzaluna.

In 1995, inside the sports club of the Mezzaluna, a large complex of buildings was discovered with at least three stages of life, from the republican era to the ancient era.

In the middle of the 3rd century A.D. the residential part was enriched with thermal environments, as a testimony of which you can admire the tubing in terracotta for the passage of hot air exposed in the evocative design of the baths.

Between 2020 and 2021, during archaeological surveillance work at an Enel shipyard near Via Monte della Mezzaluna – locality Monte dei Porci was discovered a Roman villa of the II century AD, already known for the presence of a large cistern. The structure has been

Part of the portico, a part of the peristyle that enclosed the garden and part of a large apsidal hall whose mosaic floor is currently exposed in the Palazzo Borghese inside the council room Camillo Orsini