The paper offers a report of the new researches of the Roman Maritime Villa of Capo di Sorrento in the bay of Naples conducted by the Winckelmann-Institut under my guidance since 2014. During three campaigns, the villa was examined with surprising results that promise further fruitful studies. Not only have the new measurements shown that the well known building has hitherto not been judged appropriately, as the old plan from 1946 (by P. Mingazzini and F. Pfister) lacks many pieces of information and is in some central points flawed. Further, the intensive survey of the bedrock on which the maritime part of the villa was built has revealed traces of the original layout of the structure and clues concerning the construction work. Due to the well preserved state of the monument and its fine accessibility the excavation of the pars rustica was begun in 2015 with the goal of understanding its size and plan, and, especially, its architectural relation to the pars maritima. With the aid of geo- electrical prospections we seek to get an idea of the original shape of the promontory before it was altered by the huge Roman terraces which until today dominate the appearance of the Cape of Sorrento; thus we will be able to learn about the manner in which the owner and his architect(s) changed and (re-)designed the natural outline of this very special landscape – a central topic in Roman villegiatura and the respective literary sources.
Talk
Vom Meer umgeben. Die römische Villa von Capo di Sorrento
Wolfgang Filser