The Roman Villa of Rio Verde is situated in the municipality of Marbella, 5 km. away from the centre towards Puerto Banus, by the river with the same name.
These ruins were discovered in 1960, when they were carrying out archaeological prospecting near the shore on the left-hand side of the Rio Verde in Marbella. During the excavations they found ceramics and a Carthaginian bronze coin.
This roman villa has been dated back to the 1st century and early 2nd of our era, although the villa has not been able to be studied in its totality as private houses occupy part of the site. The importance of this villa is based on the diverse decoration and its excellent preservation, like the represented sample of the culinary theme.
In Marbella’s roman villa they found several objets from back then: coins, sewing needles, fishing nets, tiles, glass, nails and marble plaques, amongst other things. This villa would belong to a well off family in the roman society.
It is believed that the villa suffered a fire during the 2nd century, which forced a reconstruction of part of its bedrooms and replaced the flooring. It’s possible that it also suffered the seaquake of the year 365, as from then onwards, the villa was definitively abandoned.
The villa has been in a state of abandonment until it was declared of cultural interest on the 13th of March 2007, as from then, many projects have taken place there to guarantee its preservation and to avoid the continuous deterioration it was suffering.
- Visits: Tuesdays Thursdays and Saturdays from 12pm.
- Information phone: +34 952.78.13.60
They were built around a patio to which one could directly access from the outside. Amongst the rooms that the villa had, there were the family rooms, libraries, bathrooms, living rooms and even several dining rooms.
The majority of these type of buildings were abandoned in the late 2nd century after our era, and the ones that weren't abandoned went through a drastic transformation, nowhere near there original roman style, mostly due to the concentration of lands.
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