©MarinaDeFranceschini - Progetto Accademia
50 - CANOPUS WEST SUBSTRUCTURES
Description
The Canopus valley was excavated in the tufa rock, and the walls were embanked with retaining and substructure walls.
On the east side there is a large retaining wall with buttresses, above which extends the Praetorium Esplanade.
On the west side, however, a multi-storey building with several rooms was built. In the 19th century it was transformed into the Casino Braschi and currently hosts Antiquarium of the Villa, created in the 1960s for the sculptures found during the Aurigemma excavations in the Canopus of the 1950's.
The building was paved in white mosaic with black bands, but the rooms of the Antiquarium were paved with fragments of colored marble found during the Aurigemma excavations, leaving a fragment of the original mosaic in situ, in a corner.
The restored part of the Substructures
The lower floor is on the same level as the Canopus, rooms SC11-22. Some of them have travertine blocks that supported the mezzanines, dividing them into two floors.
Along the Euripus of the Canopus there are other rooms on a higher level, not accessible to the public. They have frescoes or a late period, some of which have been detached and were once in the Great Baths. In rooms SC1 and Sc20 there are two multi-seat latrines.
There is also an upper floor of the former Casino Braschi which currently houses the sculptures found in the Canopus during the Aurigemma excavations. There are other beautiful finds including some fragments of the frieze with marine animals from the Maritime Theater.
Fresco in the Canopus West Substructures
Function and meaning
The simple architecture, the black and white mosaic pavements and the multiple latrines prove that these rooms were intended for slaves, similarly to the Hundred Chambers and the Praetorium Substructures.
The building also served as a retaining wall on the west side of the Canopus valley.
Bibliography
SEE: Marina De Franceschini, Villa Adriana. Mosaici, pavimenti, edifici. Roma 1991, pp. 294-296 e 559-562 with previous bibliography.
Molle 2004; Ottati-Bertacchi-Adembri 2018.