Roman Villa del Vergigno in Montelupo Fiorentino
A rustic villa combining agricultural production and residential life, bearing witness to Roman daily life in Tuscany
The Roman Villa del Vergigno, located in Montelupo Fiorentino between the Pesa torrent and the Vergigno stream, is one of the best-preserved examples of a rustic villa in Tuscany. The villa was built in the 1st century BC, at the height of the Republican era, and was inhabited until the 5th century AD. It combines agricultural and productive functions with residential ones, offering unique evidence of Roman rural life.
The residential part, spread over two floors and consisting of about 16 rooms, echoes the model of the urban domus, but adapted to the agricultural context. The rooms of the owners and servants were located here, as well as a large thermal sector with frigidarium, tepidarium, calidarium and laconicum and equipped with a hypocaust for circulating warm air.
Next to the living spaces was the production section, with porches and storehouses designed for storing fruits collected from the surrounding countryside. Excavations and finds have documented intense agricultural activity, particularly wine-growing: two opus signinum tanks were used for the collecting of must, while a large wine press allowed the grapes to be crushed. Furnaces for the production of pottery, bricks and amphorae also emerged, confirming that the villa was a true manufacturing center as well as an agricultural one.
The villa was discovered in the 1980s, thanks to the work of the Montelupo Archaeological Group, and was subjected to excavation campaigns between 1989 and 1994. Later, a large roof structure made it possible to preserve the residential and thermal area, which can now be visited as part of the Archaeological Nature Park (since 2006). Since 2013, with the Villa del Vergigno Archaeological Project, the site is once again at the center of international investigations that have enriched the knowledge of its building techniques, production spaces and artisan activities.
Today, the Villa del Vergigno is a unique building in the province of Florence, not only due to its fully reconstructed floor plan, but also its ability to tell the story, through its spaces, of daily life in a Roman community, suspended between agriculture, commerce and otium.
