These Roman ruins of a Roman villa date to the 1st century AD.
The villa was destroyed when the Visigoths came.
Below is a drawing of the villa with a central courtyard.
Here is what exists now as the courtyard..
The floors are still exquisite mosaics. I took lots of photos of these mosaic floors as you will see as you scroll on.
The ruins are totally under cover now with a raised walkway throughout to see it.
Above is the formal dining area. A waterfall down that sluiceway in the back and a fountain came up through this center.
This picture in the museum represents how the dining area would have been used.
Grave stones above laying flat.
The engineering of the water flow was amazing. All of this disappeared with Visigoth invasion.
We were told the story of the statue of Hypnos that was found when these ruins were excavated. The mayor of Almedinilla took the statue and hid it behind his bed because he knew that it would end up in Madrid. Once the museum was built 20 years later, the statue was brought out for display.
Somehow when the Visigoths smashed the statues they only managed to break off a hand of Hypnos.
This statue would have had prominent place in the Roman villa.
