Elevation 100 m Owner Portugal | Municipality Cascais | |
Roman villa of Alto do Cidreira (Portuguese: Vila romana do Alto do Cidreira) is a Roman villa in the civil parish of Alcabideche, municipality of Cascais. Although known since the 1890s, this site has nonetheless been neglected by archaeologist conservationists, resulting in destruction of artefacts, that include Roman era mosaics, a bath complex and an olive oil cellar.
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History
The territory of the municipality of Cascais has been an active zone of human occupation since the Neolithic, but extensively explored during the Roman occupation of the peninsula, from the complex industrial base uncovered on this site, so near the centre of the ancient Olisipo. The villa was likely constructed in the 1st century, from ceramics uncovered, which allowed the establishment of a primary occupation in the second half of the 1st century and first half of the second. There is an assumption that the area was abandoned at the end of the 2nd century and during the 3rd century, but a reoccupation occurred in the 4th and 5th century.
The site was first recognized by Francisco de Paula Oliveira, of the Portuguese geological services, who, at the end of the 1890s (1889 specifically) first referred to the Roman villa.
It was in 1915, that the correspondent for the Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses (Portuguese Association of Archaeologists), Félix Alves Pereira visited the locality, at the time after agronomist Caetano da Silva Luz, Viscount of Coruche (1842-1904), had completed some excavations. Yet, these digs did not impeded the discovery of three tanks decorated with opus signinum, and which were later partially destroyed in the 1960s during the construction of some residences.
It was necessary to wait until 1977, before, the site was examined, and then full systematic excavations were elaborated between 1980 and 1981, by archaeologists Guilherme Cardoso and José d'Encarnação.
On 25 November 2007, it was proposed that the area be classified as part of a Zone of Special Protection, by the municipal council of Cascais, which was approved by the DRCLVTejo on 14 May 2008, and tentatively by IGESPAR on 11 June.
Architecture
The site is implanted in an urban space, on an elevated hilltop alongside the geodesic marker João Cidreira, immediately near a clandestine barrio (which is encroaching on the site).
The villa was probably constructed on an elevated point during the 1st century (owing to the presence of terra sigillata clara A). The domus, consists of a two-storey building, with a few spaces paved in polychromatic mosaics, along with a their respective thermae complex.
In addition to the three tanks, some medieval silos and receptacle from the same period were discovered. It is likely that the villa was reused over the several centuries of occupation for other purposes.
The site included a thermal bath, with associated conduits for water and hypocausts, which were eroded/destroyed by both natural and human actions. This includes the finding of a semi-circular tank for cold water baths (frigidarium), in addition to a praefurnium used for the heating of air which circulated in the caverns beneath the baths (heating the tanks and floors).
In addition to the exhumed terra sigilatta, the archaeologists discovered a number of remnants of ceramics, construction materials (such as tegulae and imbrices), shards of bronze, buttons and a small terracotta mask (which has since been put on display in the Museu dos Condes de Castro Guimarães, in Cascais.