©MarinaDeFranceschini - Progetto Accademia
51 - PRAETORIUM ESPLANADE
Description
The Praetorium Esplanade starts from the Praetorium panoramic Pavilion and extends for three hundred meters until it reaches the Accademia.
On its southern side it ends with the Nymphaeum of the Praetorium, which was its scenic backdrop.
It is one of the many artificial esplanades of the Villa, located at a higher level than the Canopus.
Its west side, towards the Canopus, has a powerful retaining wall with comb-shaped buttresses.
West retaining wall of the Praetorium Esplanade
Between the buttresses there still are the post holes, used for the wooden scaffolding during construction.The Esplanade is privately owned, it has never been excavated or opened to the public.
Function and meaningNothing is known about the excavations and discoveries.
Certainly it was a vast rectangular garden area; its shape conditions the layout of the Academia, which has one side cut obliquely to follow its orientation.