The Winter Palace is divided into three different levels.
The lower floor was on the same level of the Garden Stadium, onto which it opened with a series of rooms. The intermediate floor has large subterranean Cryptoporticus and other substructing rooms. Finally, the upper floor had a large water basin (called Peschiera or Fishpond) surrounded by a portico and several large rooms overlooking the panorama towards the Poecile, the Building with Three Exedras and the Garden Stadium.
The lower floor was closed to the public over twenty years ago and cannot be visited. Its rooms are a little higher than the Garden Stadium because they rested on a sort of podium containing the the heating system.
From the Garden Stadium three stairs went up to rooms PE2, PE4 and PE9.
At the center of the lower floor was the large hall PE6, whose collapsed vault was raised again with an anastylosis several decades ago.
All the rooms open towards the Garden Stadium had large windows and were paved in opus sectile, except the rear corridor PE10, which had a simple mosaic floor.
In one of these rooms there are the remains of a calcara, i.e. a late antique furnace for burning marbles and make lime.
The Cryptoporticus of the Winter Palace
From room PE2 the PE12 staircase goes up to the intermediate floor, where is the large Cryptoporticus. This too was closed about twenty years ago and cannot be visited despite being one of the best preserved and most spectacular sites of the Villa.
It consisted of four corridors PE29-32: the floor is not visible, but traces of the frescoes and several signatures of ancient visitors can still be seen on the walls.
It was lit by splay windows (window tunnels) that open along the sides of the corridor PE35 which surrounds the Fishpond PE37 on the upper floor. It can be reached from the corridor PE32 with the stairs PE33 and 34.
The PE28 corridor is very important because it has the signature of Francesco Piranesi with the date 1741, when he surveyed the Villa to design his General Plan published in 1781.
In PE25 there is another entrance for those coming from the Imperial Palace and another PE26 staircase that goes up to the rooms on the upper floor.
On this same level are the rooms PE13-20, always closed to the public, which once housed the furnaces for the heating system.
Water basin PE37 of the Winter Palace
On the east side of the upper floor is the large water basin or "Fishpond" PE37 once cladded with white marble. The outer walls have alternating semicircular and rectangular niches, where statues must have been placed.
The large basin is surrounded by a walkway on a lower level, paved in white mosaic, whre the openings of the splay windows that illuminate the Cryptoporticus below can be seen.
Fishpond and walkway are surrounded by the PE35 portico, which is on a higher level. It was paved in opus sectile, with Corinthian columns and capitals.
The walls were cladded with marble, and the traces of large rectangular panels can be seen.
To the west side of the upper floor is a series of vast and monumental halls, all equipped with suspensurae for winter heating.
In PE39 and PE40 there are still some marbles from the opus sectile floors.
In the large panoramic rooms facing the Garden Stadium, only the lower brick floors (sesquipedali) remain on which the suspensurae once rested, i.e. the small pillars that supported the actual floor which must have been in opus sectile. On the walls there are the traces of large panels and recesses for large marble reliefs.
The central hall PI56 was the most important one, overlooking the panoramic view from above towards the Poecile.
In room PI52 there are four small single latrines.
Function and meaning
The richness of the decoration with opus sectile pavements, the marble cladding on the walls, the large and monumental halls, the panoramic view and the single latrines prove that this building was part of the imperial and noble quarters.
The presence of a winter heating system, given that it is not a thermal building, is a further element of luxury, and proves that the emperor lived there during the winter.
The Cryptoporticus PE29-32 was in practice a basis villae similar to the Cryptoporticus with a Mosaic Vault.
It served as a podium to support the upper floor of the building and to connect the lower and upper levels of the building.
At the same time it was a cool and sheltered place to walk in the summer.
Therefore the Winter Palace was the private residence of the Emperor and was part of the Imperial Residence. We have seen that the Building with Three Exedras was the atrium of this complex, the Garden Stadium was the inner garden; a thermal plant could not be missing, which in fact was in the Small Baths.
Seen from below, from the Garden Stadium, the Building with Peschiera is very reminiscent of the Palatine Palace in Rome, seen from the Circus Maximus.
See n. 4 - The Imperiale Residence of Villa Adriana in the section Discover the Villa
SEE: Marina De Franceschini, Villa Adriana. Mosaici, pavimenti, edifici. Roma 1991, pp. 225-240 e 513-521.
Piranesi 1781; Winnefeld 1895; Gusman 1904; Kähler 1950; Aurigemma 1954; Dacos 1965; Salza Prina Ricotti 1972;