ARCHAEOLOGICAL VILLAS OF STABIAE

The archaeological site of Ancient Stabiae is about 10 minutes from the Stabia Main Port, traveling along the panoramic area of the city. Stabiae played an important strategic and commercial role as early as the Archaic period (8th century BC).

In this period, on the northern edge of the Varano hill, numerous villas were built in a panoramic position, designed mainly for residential purposes, with vast living quarters, thermal structures, porticos, and splendidly decorated nymphaeum. Currently, it is possible to visit only some of these villas: ‘Villa S. Marco’ which, with a surface area of 11,000 square meters, is one of the largest residential Roman ‘villae’; ‘Villa Arianna’, the oldest, which owes its name to the large mythological painting found on the back wall of the triclinium, and the villa known as the ‘Second Complex’, separated from Villa Arianna by a narrow street.