Archaeologists from the National Institute of Cultural Heritage have uncovered a Roman villa with an indoor plunge pool during excavations at the port city of Durrës, Albania. Durrës, originally founded by Ancient Greek colonists from Corinth and Corcyra, evolved into a significant trading center in antiquity. During the Roman period, it was annexed into the expanding territory of the Roman Republic following the conclusion of the Illyrian Wars.
By the 4th century, the city, then named Dyrrachium, had emerged as the capital of the Roman province of Epirus nova, encompassing the region of Ancient Epirus.
The archaeologists, excavating a former residential part of the ancient city, uncovered a high-status Roman villa dating from between the 1st and 4th centuries AD. The villa’s interior features an indoor pool, richly adorned with frescoes on the walls and mosaic flooring made of marble, stone, glass, and ceramics. Adjacent to the pool are shallow square basins lined with waterproof mortar, believed to be remnants of an ancient water feature.
In the northern area of the excavation site, the team discovered a large brick floor from a thermae, a Roman bath, and additional traces of walls from the wider complex. In the western area, they found fragments of relief stucco used to decorate the villa’s walls and ceilings. These reliefs, depicting anthropomorphic and floral motifs, further indicate the wealth of the villa’s inhabitants.
According to the archaeologists, the villa was destroyed by an earthquake in the 4th century, corroborating ancient sources that describe a powerful earthquake causing buildings to collapse and the city’s defenses to crumble.
