The villa that saw the birth of the Sanremo reality

Located in the Foce region in the area behind the monumental cemetery between the former railway track and the sea, the remains of the villa, with the typical characteristics of a rustic dwelling, belong to a structure that was part of a fund extended from the hill to the sea.

The masonry of the building, with small blocks of split stone, is the same used for the Roman theatre of Ventimiglia.

The archaeological excavations carried out in 1937 and 1962 have brought to light ten rooms, three of which were part of a small thermal plant adjacent to the villa.

This complex, intended for private use, consisted of a calidarium, equipped with an apsidal wall, while on the north side there was a step that was to serve as a seat when the thermal baths were filled with hot water.

Next to the calidarium there was the tepidarium, equipped with a hypocaust, a room under the floor where the fire was lit by hot air heating, and a special side duct to allow the warm air to flow out.
The frigidarium, which was accessed via a small staircase, was also equipped on the eastern side with a pipeline, while the floor of this room was made of particularly hard concrete.

The function of the large room located to the east of the thermal baths, connected to the tepidarium and the frigidarium and probably connected to the castellum aquae located near the stream, is not yet completely clear.

Equally uncertain is the destination of the other rooms, of which one is apsidal, which were presumably part of the villa's main area and were probably used for residential purposes.

The ruins therefore refer to a villa and its adjoining thermal baths dating back to the second century A.D. and initially extended beyond the river Foce, near the former lazaret, to the Bernardo stream.

(sources: text by Andrea Gandolfo; images: personal)