ROME AND NEIGHBOURHOODSTIVOLI - VILLA ADRIANA |
PECILE - particolare della piscina |
1. Poecile - a vast quadrilateral portico (232m x 97m) with curved
short sides and a central garden with pool destined for promenades, as an
inscription found nearby sustains.
2. Hundred Chambers - this series of quarters distributed on different
floors forms the impressive construction of the western part of the Poecile.
They are connected to the upper buildings by way of a system of
underground tunnels. These rooms were probably the living quarters of slaves and
servants of the villa.
3. The Small Baths - these include an octagonal room with convex and
flat walls perhaps forming the apodyterium, a pool with apse-shaped sides, a
tepidarium, a frigidarium, two great apse-shaped pools and the natatium. This
was most probably the bath complex for the women.
4. The Vestibule - a building between the Small and Great Baths, of
which few traces remain. It was part gymnasium, part lararium (ancient imperial
cult).
5. The Great Baths - the men's bath complex. Along the western side is
an external corridor with the ovens (praeturnia). In the great circular room the
Turkish bath (sudatio) was probably located because no plumbing pipes are
present. Running towards the south are the tepidarium, followed by the
calidarium, and a room with three pools. To the east of the tepidarium is a
great room with cross-vaults decorated with plaster. In the centre is the
frigidarium with two pools, one rectangular and the semicircular.
Both
bath complexes were for service personnel.
6. Praetorium - this great complex of tabernae on many floors
probably constituted the residences of service personnel and storage rooms.