Bignor Roman Villa in South Downs National Park, Bignor, West Sussex, UK, opens for a new season on March 1, 2020

Bignor Roman Villa in South Downs National Park, Bignor, West Sussex, UK, opens for a new season on March 1, 2020.
The villa about 9 miles northeast of Chichester (the Roman city of Noviomagus Reginorum) was discovered in 1811 by local farmer , George Tupper. It was excavated by John Hawkins and antiquarian, Samuel Lysons then opened to the public in 1814. Finds there point to the existence of a Romano-British farmstead by the end of the 1st century CE but the earliest structural remains of a simple timber structure date to about 190 CE. A four-roomed stone building was built in the middle of the 3rd century CE, and this was extended between c.240 and 290 CE by the addition of a few new rooms, a hypocaust, and a portico that faced east, At the beginning of the 4th century CE north and south wings were added. It's final form consisted of 65 rooms surrounding a courtyard, with a number of outlying farm buildings. Between 300 and 350 CE additions to the north wing included figural mosaics in the summer and winter tricliniums and in the bathhouse to the southeast. A Greek-key-patterned northern corridor extends for some 79 ft (24m) making it the longest in Britain.




Image: Mosaics depicting a gladiator bout and Ganymede at the Bignor Roman Villa near Chichester, UK courtesy of Wikimedia Commons users Nilfanion (Image adjusted for perspective) and Udimu.

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