Aquileia, reconstructed Roman Domus of Titus Macro

An innovative project to enhance and reconstruct the rooms of the Domus of Titus Macro has been promoted in Aquileia, thanks to the Aquileia Foundation with the contribution of Ales. The intervention was financed with six million euros through resources given to the Foundation by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.

The project consisted of the rearrangement of the Domus area, after a major excavation activity conducted by the University of Padua, and the construction of a modern and elegant monochrome brick roof supported by steel pillars in Pompeian red. The public can then enter the ancient Roman dwelling to understand its articulation, volumes, pathways, lighting sources and the relationship between the main rooms and the uncovered areas.

An area of 320 square meters of mosaic-decorated floors has been cleaned, consolidated, gaps repaired and finally protected.

The visit will soon be enriched with a multimedia set-up, attentive to educational aspects, which will make it possible to reconstruct the characteristics of the rooms and floors through the use of the latest technology.

“This is a particularly long and complex undertaking,” said Simonetta Bonomi, Superintendent of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Friuli Venezia Giulia, “but also an exciting one, the result of choral work, reflections, discussions and non-trivial choices aimed at finding a balance between protection, restoration and philological reconstruction, readability and enjoyability. The result makes it possible to appreciate the archaeological remains in a new way, restoring their atmospheres, lights and volumes.” “The enhancement of the Domus of Titus Macro,” added Antonio Zanardi Landi, President of the Aquileia Foundation, “represents an important point in a path that the Aquileia Foundation has been following for some time, with the aim of achieving a better usability of the remains of the great Roman city. The goal is to make the archaeological finds and great works of art preserved in Aquileia ’speak’, helping understanding in the highly original context of a city that was a meeting point of Romanity with the Balkan world and the North African and Middle Eastern worlds. We trust that the Domus of Titus Macro will further attract public attention, thus joining two other major buildings built by the Foundation, the Southern Hall and the Episcopal Domus, which each attract 60,000 visitors annually.”

The Domus di Tito Macro is one of the largest Roman-era dwellings found in northern Italy and covers an area of 1,700 square meters: a unicum in Europe. The dwelling stretches about 77 meters in length and 25 in maximum width, between two decumani within one of the southern blocks of the colony, founded in 181 B.C., from which come the famous mosaic of the Rape of Europe, the floor with tasseled vine shoot and the ’unswept floor,’ now on display at the National Archaeological Museum, and the mosaic of the Good Shepherd, temporarily placed in the Meizlik Palace.

The dwelling was partially investigated in the 1950s and, between 2009 and 2015, was the subject of excavations conducted by the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padua, in agreement with the Aquileia Foundation and under concession from MiBACT, under the direction of Jacopo Bonetto. The excavations made it possible to recognize, in particular, the plan of the domus, built in the 1st century B.C. and lived continuously until the 6th century A.D. , and to propose its attribution to Titus Macros, a wealthy inhabitant of Aquileia, based on the discovery of a stone weight with an iron handle bearing the inscription T.MACR.

“The work carried out by the University of Padua has brought to light an entire dwelling, not just any dwelling, but an ’atrium’ house: the first one found in Aquileia, a site known for its numerous remains of domestic buildings, in most, however, consisting of fragments or portions that are difficult to understand. Hence the decision to take on one of the greatest and most original challenges: to re-propose in its entirety and spatial footprint a Roman house, creating a cover that would make the articulation of the spaces evident even to the general public and offer a different, but no less exciting, sensory experience than the one that can be had through virtual reconstructions. An experience that, we hope, will help make the ancient Roman colony, which later became the capital of Venetia et Histria, not only the place of the heart for the people of Aquileia, but a must-see for many tourists,” said Francesca Ghedini, professor emerita of classical archaeology, and Professor Jacopo Bonetto, professor of classical archaeology at the University of Padua and director of archaeological research in the Cossar Funds.

The archaeological investigations also made it possible to document the stages of evolution of the domus, which was subject to various transformations and renovations including the large fishing mosaic, which will be relocated to the reception hall open to the garden. The owners’ standard of living is evidenced by a beautiful gold and glass paste ring dated 2nd-3rd centuries AD. More than 1,200 coins were returned from the excavations, including the sestertius of Maximinus the Thracian (235-236 A.D.), the emperor who found death in Aquileia itself at the hands of his own soldiers who had unsuccessfully laid siege to the city that remained loyal to Rome. A small treasure of as many as 560 coins was later found in the atrium area, hidden by its owner in a hole around 460 A.D., in the turbulent years following the capture of Aquileia by Attila, king of the Huns, and never recovered.

The house was entered from the west, through an atrium supported by four columns and equipped with a central pool for collecting water and a well, partially preserved and supplemented in the missing part. On axis with the entrance was the tablinum, a reception room of the master of the house, with a rich mosaic floor. The rear part of the house gravitated to a central uncovered space, the garden, surrounded by a mosaic corridor and equipped with a fountain. Opening onto it was the great reception hall and, to the south, the triclinium, flanked by living rooms and a bedroom (cubiculum). To the north, on the other hand, was the kitchen with a masonry counter, while in the eastern part four stores were recognized, including a baker’s store with a baking oven, the remains of which remain in view.

The reconstruction project was prepared by the Temporary Grouping of Professionals, coordinated by arch. Eugenio Vassallo and carried out under the supervision of the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio del Friuli-Venezia Giulia, with Ermanno Simonati supervising the work.

The Domus can be visited on the occasion of the European Heritage Days and, thereafter, will be open to the public by reservation, according to arrangements to be announced soon at www.fondazioneaquileia.it

Aquileia, reconstructed Roman Domus of Titus Macro

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