Roman villa in Linguella

The remains of the Roman Villa of Linguella, which perhaps would be better called the Linguella Public Baths, given the recent hypotheses of the Archaeological Superintendency for Fine Arts and Landscape, are located in the Linguella archaeological area, the farthest tip of the land strip that borders the Portoferraio gulf.

The previous hypothesis, before 2022, was that it was built in the mid-1st century BC as a seaside villa dedicated to otium, and it had a longer life than the Monumental Complex of the Caves and the Villa of Capo Castello.

Enlarged between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, it reached its greatest extent and peak in the 2nd century AD, when it is believed that Publius Aclius Attianus, Prefect of the Praetorian Guard under Emperor Hadrian, stayed there for reasons related to the exploitation of the granite quarries.

In the 3rd century, the villa began to decline, a fate that soon affected the entire Roman Empire; the abandoned building became a refuge for the poor, a place to gather materials for new constructions, until it disappeared.

In 1548, the area was completely rebuilt by Cosimo de' Medici to create one of the three fortresses central to Medici defense: the Torre della Linguella. It is precisely from this period that the first official document referring to a Roman villa in the land strip closing the Portoferraio gulf originates.

Discovered through excavations conducted at the end of the 1970s, but heavily contaminated by the Medici constructions, only a few parts of the villa are clearly recognizable, all probably related to the thermal area: the laconicum, a circular room in cocciopesto with four side apses, some extensions of the thermal area with polychrome mosaic floors, rooms with opus sectile flooring, walls in opus reticulatum, and painted plaster in purple and yellow, imperial colors that tell of a grandeur buried for centuries.

The first results of the restoration of the Linguella public thermal complex

In August 2021, restoration and recovery work began on the mosaics and masonry works of about 2000 years ago that form the Linguella complex. During the restoration campaign, the Archaeological Superintendency for Fine Arts and Landscape determined that the areas under restoration seem to belong much more to a public thermal complex rather than a villa, so much so that the area has been renamed: Linguella public thermal complex.

Currently, three mosaics that were located at the side of the bastion of San Francesco outside the complex have been detached, restored, and displayed inside the archaeological museum. In their place, copies of the restored originals have been displayed outside.