parts of germany were once part of the roman empire & the fortification wall limes provided the utmost frontier between germania magna & germania superior. germania magna ( today's northern germany ) was never conquered and therefore you cannot find any traces of the romans in these regions today. but in southern germany ( germania superior ) there are still heaps of roman relicts in existence and those parts of germany are still heavily influenced by this former occupation. saarland was part of germania superior, too, which is why we decided to visit a roman villa near the little village of borg, which was reconstructed on an archaeological site of a former roman settlement.
let's take a peak inside and see what a villa rustica ( as those types of buildings are called ) actually looked like.
the gatehouse. unfortunately i wasn't able to take a good photo of the main building up front because the sun wasn't in the right position when we visited. the gatehouse wasn't the main entry in roman times, though, the original entry was about 400 metres up west.
we then proceeded to enter the main structures where a little museum is located and where they also reconstructed the interiors of a typical roman villa and what it might've looked like back in the days.
this cabinet was really cool and i wish i was in possession of it.
the reception hall was such a beautiful place with the little fountain in the middle. i loved how the light fell in through the skylights. i tried to imagine how it must've felt like to be greeted in this hall, there were probably statues standing around and maybe even plants and the fountain surely pattered along. the soundscape of the hall was really nice, slightly reverberating.
lion door knocker.
the hallways next to the main rooms were suffused with light.
roman lavatory ;)
another gem of the mansion were the bathroom structures. romans had a very elaborate bathing culture. this room here was the frigidarium ( cold bath ).
the basin was really deep.
the decorations were kind of cute. can you spot the little rat? there was a guessing game going on for kids, they had to count how many rats could be found inside the mansion.
this bathroom is called caldarium, a hot plunge bath. the water basin in front of the caldarium always contained cool water for refreshment purposes because the general atmosphere in this room was really humid and warm. the basin and floor is build out of real marble.
the hot water was heated in a boiler room behind the caldarium and ran into the basin via the lion's head.
relaxation room.
the relaxation room probably had underfloor heating, which was pretty luxurious. i still can't wrap my head around the fact that 2000 years prior our modern times they were able to build underfloor heatings. it blows my mind every time.
full layout of the relaxation room.
there was another bathroom, the tepidarium. as the latin name suggests, it was only tepid in here. the most eye-catching element was this beautiful statue. she's depicting the muse clio. i love how her flowy dress almost seems to be out of real fabric. it's always astounding to me how you can work out such details with such an adamant material like rocks.
i edited this photo into a black & white one, because... i just had to. less colour sometimes brings out the elegance of certain objects in a really beautiful way.
stone relief.
a slightly better view of the tepidarium. it didn't have a basin, you just sat down on benches or canapé like structures to enjoy the tepid temperatures. inside this room you could find a lot of statues and other valuable objects, as you mainly just daydreamed while you were here. the little object next to the statue is a shrine.
after our bathroom tour we made our way back outside to explore the gardens. here's another shot of the gatehouse, but now with a garden extension.
i forgot who is depicted here, but it's a neat head sculpture nonetheless, right?
adjoining buildings were surrounding the main mansion and the the big pond inside the open courtyard.
inside the adjoining buildings you could find economy-related structures like a kitchen. they really baked real bread here! when we entered the kitchen there was the heavenly smell of freshly produced bread all over the place. there's also a tavern nearby where you can taste the bread and eat more roman specialties. we ate lunch there and it was really delicious! i love eating meals that were inspired by ancient recipes, it's so interesting to taste things that once nourished people such a long time ago. sometimes they concocted the most interesting flavours.
i'm guessing this was supposed to be a preparation room.
back to the garden structures outside! here you can have a better look at how the gardens were designed. they had of course different functions, from a practical kitchen garden to sophisticated flower gardens.
also, the architecture was so beautiful. i really felt like i was in italy, unfortunately though in a much colder climate, haha.
lavender garden.
better look at the lavender courtyard. i'm pretty sure it's a stunning place in summer when the lavender starts to bloom and emitting its distinct odour out into the world.
the back of the main building ( where the reception hall is located ).
the structures complimented the blue sky beautifully.
the kitchen garden.
and i'm ending this post with a last picture of the kitchen garden. this place must be absolutely enchanting when everything is a lot greener and more enriched with blooming flowers. i loved to learn more about life in roman mansions and getting an insight on ancient history.
our time in saarland ended here, we drove back to wiesbaden in the afternoon and spent some more days in my home base in hessia. there's still more to come, we visited heidelberg for example & said hi to my local animal park as well, so that's next!
of course i was again totally enamoured with the state of saarland, and i hope i will get to see more of it in the future. saarland, i love you!
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