Tigellio's Villa

Among the most important archaeological sites in Sardinia, the aristocratic Tigellio's Villa proves the extension of the ancient Roman settlement in the western part of the city. The complex is known by the name of Tigellio and it is located in the street that has his name. Tigellio was a famous poet and singer, who lived during the Augustan Age in the Roman Period. Actually it is an elegant Roman residential area built in the 1st century BC, consisting of three domus. The interest about the archaeological complex of Tigellio began in the second half of the 19th century, when it was found, within some documents called "Codici d'Arborea" (Codes of Arborea), an alleged biography of the Sardinian musician Tigellio, who would have bought lands in the area of the Amphitheatre to build his luxurious house. The first series of archaeological investigations by Canon Spano discovered some spaces that he named “Casa degli Stucchi” ( Plaster House), for the extensive use of covering plaster.

The excavating job continued in the 60s, with the Superintendent of Sardinian Antiquities, Gennaro Pesce: another domus emerged, the “Casa del Tablinio Dipinto” ( House of Painted Tablinio) and a spa building, whose perforated brick floor, testifies to the likely housing of suspensurae of the caldarium termale.

Finally, the analysis of the found structures, together with the recovery of ceramic materials, give us information about a chronological age between the Republican Period and the sixth-seventh century AD.