Pisões Roman Villa is the site of a large Roman country house about 10 kilometres south-west of Beja, occupied from the 1st to the 4th century AD, with mosaics, private baths and a Roman dam nearby. Farm work uncovered the site by accident in February 1967, and it is classified as a Property of Public Interest since 1970.
An inscription to Salus, the goddess of health, names the owner as Caius Atilius Cordus.
What to see at Pisões Roman Villa
- Main house: the owners' house, facing south around a peristyle with four marble columns, with 48 rooms decorated with stucco, marble plaques and mosaics.
- Mosaics: polychrome floor mosaics with geometric and figurative motifs, including water themes.
- Baths: private baths to the north-east, with a furnace and three rooms whose floors rest on small arches, through which hot air heated the rooms.
- Dam: a Roman dam about 200 metres away, which supplied the tanks, the pool and the baths of the villa.
- Mausoleums: funerary buildings of the villa.
History of Pisões Roman Villa
- 1st to 4th century AD: the villa is occupied as the centre of a Roman farming estate.
- 1964: ploughing uncovers three large press weights, called pisões, which give the site its name.
- February 1967: a tractor uncovers a fragment of mosaic floor, and excavations begin under the archaeologists Fernando Nunes Ribeiro and Abel Viana.
- 1970: the villa is classified as a Property of Public Interest.
- Reopening: the villa reopens to visitors, under an agreement between the Alentejo Regional Directorate of Culture, the Beja Municipality and the University of Évora, which owns the land.
Visiting Pisões Roman Villa
- Location: the villa is near the village of Penedo Gordo, in the parish of Beja (Santiago Maior e São João Baptista), reached from the N18 road towards Aljustrel.
- Visits: the site can be visited with or without booking, and a full visit takes about an hour.
