Villa Romana del Casale

Villa Romana del Casale, located in Piazza Armerina, Sicily, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site celebrated for its extensive Roman mosaics, covering over 3,500 m² across 48 rooms.

Planning your visit

The Villa Romana del Casale holds the most extensive and best-preserved Roman mosaics anywhere — over 3,500 square metres across 48 rooms, buried by a landslide in the twelfth century, which is precisely why they survived.

The subjects are extraordinary in range: a 60-metre corridor showing the capture of wild animals across Africa and Asia for the Roman games, with elephants, rhinoceros and tigers being loaded onto ships; hunting scenes; mythological cycles; and the room known for the bikini girls, ten young women in what appear to be two-piece athletic costumes, exercising with weights and a discus.

Who owned the villa is unresolved, though the scale suggests someone of senatorial or imperial rank.

Raised walkways carry visitors above the floors, and a protective structure covers the site.

Piazza Armerina is in inland Sicily. Bookable options combine the villa with the Aidone museum holding the Morgantina finds. Allow two hours. Current availability is listed below.