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VILLA ADRIANA by MARINA DE FRANCESCHINI

PRAETORIUM PAVILION



Wonderful panoramic pavilion overlooking the Canopus

©MarinaDeFranceschini - Progetto Accademia

40 - PRAETORIUM PANORAMIC PAVILION 
Description

It is on top of the Praetorium Substructures and was the northern limit of the Praetorium Esplanade, which extended southwards for about 300 m to the Accademia.

The building was damaged by bombing during the Second World War, so some rooms were razed to the ground and can only be partially rebuilt.
Access was via a noble itinerary completely separate from that of the Praetorium Substructures.
From the Cryptoporticus of the Great Baths a stairway B ascended from the lowest level to the intermediate level of the Hanging Gardens (n. 34). From there another stairway with white marble steps (No. 1 in plan) went up to the Pavilion.

PRETORIO PADIGIONE veduta dentro.png
Room PR19 of the Praetorium Panoramic Pavilion

The first room encountered at the top of the staircase is a small single latrine no. 3 with opus sectile floor where the imprints of the rhomboidal slabs remain.
Corridors no. 7 and 8 lead inside the building, but the symmetrical porticoes n. 9 and no. 21 and the south side of peristyle no. 15 are outside the state property, barred by a fence and covered with brambles, so you can't see anything.
The symmetrical corridors nos. 13 and 16 have the holes of the nails in the walls, so they were covered with marble.

Room no. 14 was a belvedere terrace overlooking the Great Baths but its floor has partially collapsed.
The portico n. 15 was excavated in the eighteenth century by the owner De Angelis who found columns in cipollino marble. A column shaft can still be seen in site.
The walls were covered in marble, as can be seen from the holes for the nails which outline large rectangular panels surrounded by bands.
In room no. 17 the pavement has the impressions of the opus sectile marble slabs, and holes for the nails on the walls.

In the corner between the Great Baths and the Canopus are rooms nos. 18-19-20 which also have the imprints of opus sectile floor slabs and some fragments of colored frescoes.
The view from room 22 which overlooked the north-western corner of the Praetorium Substructures was spectacular. It was located above the first buttresses of a very long retaining wall, which bordered and supported the western side of the Esplanade itself.

Rare case, the outer west facade of the room still has fragments of the decoration: a brick cornice and pilasters that framed rectangular panels, where there are still parts of plaster without traces of color. Therefore this building (and also others in the Villa) originally had to be plastered on the outside as well.

The floors were in opus sectile, and where the floor is not buried, the imprints of the slabs can be seen and in some cases it has been possible to reconstruct the design.  

PRETORIO PADIGIONE veduta intonaco.png
Outer decoration with brick pillars

Function and meaning
Little is knowns about the Praetorium Pavilion, which has always been difficult to reach and has been closed to the public some twenty years ago.
The opus sectile floors, the precious marbles, the traces of marble panels covering the walls and the single latrine prove that it belonged to the noble and imperial quarters. This is confirmed by its elevated and panoramic location.

On the north north side the Praetorium Pavilion had a panoramic terrace which overlooked the Great Baths but it has partially collapsed; the same happened on the side towards the Canopus, from which the Temple of Apollo of the Accademia can still be seen.

It was certainly a summer pavilion with a portico, opened towards the Praetorium Esplanade, which extended for about three hundred meters along the Canopus valley and reached the Accademia: on its southern end there was the Nymphaeum of the Praetorium (n. 42).
This area was a vast garden but it has never been excavated or explored; it would be interesting to do some prospecting to understand its arrangement.

SEE: Marina De Franceschini, Villa Adriana - Mosaici, pavimenti, edifici. Roma 1991, pp. 532-536 with previous bibliography
Guidobaldi 1994; Bergamo 2014.





Villa Adriana - Progetto Accademia
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