Welcome to the site Napoliforme

About 2,500 square metres of the villa (explored by Bourbon tunnels between 1757 and 1762) have been excavated, only part of the total area. It is the oldest villa on the coast, built through successive extensions (the atrium and surrounding rooms date from the late Republican period, the rooms on either side of the summer triclinium from the Neronian period, the gymnasium from the Flavian period, plus the service rooms and the baths), and its layout follows the unevenness of the hillside. A system of ramps on six levels connects it to the plain, and a tunnel that passes underneath the rooms reaches the rustic part of the complex, where the villa is accessed from the Varano plateau and where in 1981 the remains of two farm carts were found in a courtyard. The different decorations on the walls distinguish the smaller rooms, probably for everyday use, frescoed with flying figures, cupids, landscape paintings, faces framed by medallions, from the large reception rooms, dominated by Dionysian mythological themes, with almost life-size figures, such as the depiction of the abandonment of Ariadne by the Greek hero Theseus, which gives the villa its name. As with the other complexes found on the Varano hill in the Stabiae area (Castellammare di Stabia), mosaics and paintings were taken from the villa in the 18th century through Bourbon tunnels. The painted decorations of the villa include the Flora, the goddess of spring depicted from behind as she plucks a flower from a bush, and the Venditrice di amorini (both 1st century AD), found in 1759 and now on display in the Archaeological Museum of Naples.C.), found in 1759 and now on display in the Archaeological Museum of Naples, are part of the painted decorations of the villa. These themes became famous and widespread in the neoclassical taste of the 18th century and were replicated in watercolours, prints, porcelain and paintings.