©MarinaDeFranceschini - Progetto Accademia
5 – TERRACE OF TEMPE Description
The eastern side of the Villa overlooked the Valley of Tempe with the Terrace of Tempe, a vast artificial esplanade that went from the Fede Nymphaeum [n. 4] up to the Tempe Pavilion [n. 6].
The terrace was supported by massive retaining walls with perpendicular buttresses, visible in the area of the Palestra [n. 2], which reach as far as Piazza d'Oro [n. 8].
The walls are the same as those that border the Accademia Esplanade [n. 54], on the opposite western side of the Villa, from Roccabruna to the Academy.
The large retaining wall of the Terrace of Tempe
The Terrace was a vast hanging garden decorated with plants and pergolas, but nothing is known about its arrangement because it has never been excavated and antiquarian sources do not mention it.
In the past centuries, in fact, excavations concentrated on large buildings where it was easy to discover statues, mosaics and precious marbles.
SEE: Marina De Franceschini, Villa Adriana. Mosaici, pavimenti, edifici, 1991, pp. 451-452.