Hadrian's imperial villa at Palestrina

The monumental complex of Hadrian’s Imperial Villa lies roughly a mile away from the famous temple dedicated to the roman goddess of Fortuna Primigenia in Palestrina, near to the cemetery.
There are two main parts to the complex. One is strictly archaeological and includes Hadrian’s villa, which was named as such after the discovery of the statue of Antinoös, the emperor’s young favourite. Today the statue is preserved in the Round Room at the Vatican Museum. The most imposing remains of the complex, still visible today, are to be found in the local cemetery of Palestrina created in the mid-19th century. There are structures lying on the current level of the road, set inside a  series of different sized parallel set rectangular containers, made in mixed materials and techniques (using a grid-like patterns with toothing and areas covered in bricks). The rooms are paved and the walls are covered in lime with crushed bricks, while the ceilings are barrel vaulted, each connecting to high centring openings  with brick archivolts. The ordered sequence of the rooms is connected by a long corridor, which runs along the western, southern and eastern sides of the building, where it branches off towards the south and extends to the height of two floors, one of which is partially underground today.
Today, the second floor of the villa is partially occupied by the Palestrina cemetery and the Church of St Mary Villa. This is the part of the complex that has been most changed, where the ancient structures were re-used and adapted to new, very unusual functions. They were also included in the part of the walls of the new buildings, according to the long standing tradition in the area around Rome. One of the villa’s halls was transformed into a Church and you can clearly see parts of the ancient brickwork of perimeter walls. Outside, two magnificent semi-circular recesses, also covered in a carefully designed facing using mixed techniques and materials, join one of the two longitudinal walls of the church with the area reserved for limbo. 
At the end of the Church hall is an apse, with a sophisticated wall in stucco with grotesque figures and themes, probably from the mid 16th century. In the centre there is an altar, presumably dating back to medieval times, carved out of an ancient trabeation marble and decorated with a mosaic in the cosmatesque style.

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