Villa Adriana was abandoned in late antiquity after the sacking of the barbarians of Totila in 544 AD. Then fell into oblivion for many centuries, becoming a quarry of building materials ready to use.

 In 1450 it was rediscovered by Flavio Biondo who understood that the immense ruins covered by brambles and called "Tivoli Vecchio" (Old Tivoli) were actually those of the imperial villa of Emperor Hadrian, described by ancient sources.

Since then it has been studied by all the most important artists, architects and antiquaries of the Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassicism, who visited it to draw inspiration from its ruins. Michelangelo, Raffaello and Palladio just to name a few.

 Since then it has been excavated countless times, because from the very beginning it turned out to be an inexhaustible treasure trove of magnificent works of art. More than four hundred statues were found there, as well as polychrome mosaics, marble floors, columns and capitals.

 We talk about this very long story in detail in a chapter of the book Villa Adriana. Architettura Celeste. I Segreti dei Solstizi, p. 84. Where you will find much more about the buildings of the Accademia, Roccabruna and Archaeoastronomy, with the extraordinary illuminations of the Solstices.