Architecturally priceless mosaics at the Milreu Roman Ruins in Estoi are receiving specialist attention after €30,000 was made available by the Algarve’s Directorate of Culture.
The mosaics are one of the key reasons that the site, a Roman villa and farm, is one of the Algarve's most popular historical attractions and include depictions of fish, dolphins and the famous, if rather scary, squid, (see below).
The original mosaics, that now are being carefully repaired and reset, were laid down by craftsmen working in the 3rd and 4th Centuries.
The award money is being used to fund expert restorers from ‘Nova Conservação - Restauro e Conservação do Património Artístico e Cultural, Lda’ and their work should take around five months to complete.
It’s all part of a larger project to clean up and re-present the Roman Ruins of Milreu. The overall grant, a healthy €530,000, has been made available under the CRESC Algarve 2020 grants programme.
The Directorate of Culture states that, "the work in progress includes cleaning the mosaics, removing weeds, applying new mortars and sealing the joints.”
This specialist workers can be seen in action by visitors, as the Ruins of Milreu will remain open to the public during the progress.
Milreu Roman Villa
The site includes a signeural house, organized around a central patio, change rooms in the east, temple in the south and agricultural installations. The central patio consists of a peristyle with 22 columns. A thermal spa includes a sequence of apodyterium, frigidarium, circular bathing pool, tepidarium and caldarium decorated with mosaics (one with oblong fish designs). The ruins of an aquatic sanctuary include an altar that served as paleo-Christian church, as indicated from the presence of a baptismal pool and a small mausoleum on the patio.
Nearby the ruins is the 16th-century rural house, used as interpretative center, (see below), that includes cylindrical buttresses along the outer corners.
See also: Milreu Roman Ruins
Comments
Then why did these reports "not" come up in the Google search !
Try 'catarina martins beja romana' there's plenty of coverage
The Beja site was covered extensively in the Portuguese press, especially after Catarina Martins visited to pose by the resulting pile of rubble.
Then why did these reports "not" come up in the Google search !
Clearly ADN leads the way in reporting architectural destruction.
The Beja site was covered extensively in the Portuguese press, especially after Catarina Martins visited to pose by the resulting pile of rubble.
Have just checked with search engine Google for further information and put in "Roman site bulldozed" and the first item that came up was "Roman site bulldozed in Bristol UK".
Then searched for "Roman site bulldozed in Portugal" and the only item that came up was from ADN which is very strange as this is a big news item and there was no other news item from any other source other than ADN.
I have the following useful links:
https://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/12715-spanish-company-trashes-roman-sites-in-beja
and
https://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/12863-left-bloc-leader-visits-bulldozed-roman-sites-near-beja
Can you please give further information on "20 Roman houses destroyed", which archaeological site in Beja did this occur.
like a burial ground.
So whilst the planning department in a Municipal might just possibly have the dig results from Infrastructures buried somewhere in a file; the Municipal museum will have no idea these exist. So has no idea what or where the Ministry of Agriculture has sanctioned work by a landowner. Hence the continued destruction of archaeological remains, a situation mirrored with rare, almost extinct wildlife habitats and ICNF letting it happen.