Delving into Roman opulence: Villa Romaine de Plassac, France

Nestled in the heart of Plassac, France, the Villa Romaine de Plassac holds the secret to not one, but three villas built by the Romans between the 1st and 3rd centuries. The first villa, reminiscent of palaces popular in the Golfo di Napoli and central Italy, catered to the tastes of a wealthy owner who leveraged the Gironde and the Bordeaux-Saintes road for economic gain. Treading its grand façade, one is struck by its past dominance over the estuary.

The main room of the villa, a 70 m2 dining room, still reveals its foundations and was occupied until approximately 110-120 AD, featuring painted plaster in a Pompeian-style, a nod to the grandeur of ancient Rome. By around 100-120 AD, a second villa was erected on the ruins of the first, sprawling across nearly 5000 m2. The triclinium or dining room, concealed at the western wall in a belvedere, flaunted opus sectile, further testifying to the opulence of the Roman villa.

The Villa Romaine de Plassac was serendipitously discovered in the 19th century and identified as a Roman villa in 1883, with Camille Jullian identifying the villa mentioned in the testament of Bertrand du Mans in 1890. Bertrand du Mans, a bishop of the Mans, was believed to have owned a villa in Plassac, as per his testament dated 616.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons