One of the prime Roman villas can be found in La Olmeda villa, situated close to Carrión de los Condes, in Palencia.
The mosaic technique is employed in the main rooms of this Roman villa.
Just by crossing its main gate, its visitors suddenly return to the Ancient Rome’s sphere. The discovery of a great mansion from the Early Roman Empire (4th century AD) in the 1970s led to the discovery of an agrarian exploitation heartland where the aristocratic taste of this villa’s owner and family is reflected.
This peculiar Roman villa was discovered in 1986 by Javier Cortés is his land, located in Pedrosa de la Vega (Palencia). La Olmeda, whose excavation has lasted for more than 30 years, includes most of the parts of this villa: pars rustica, pars urbana, and some necropolis situated around them.
One of the most spectacular mosaics is the one representing a hunt
In addition to the excavation, it includes the lifting and preservation of the first mosaics and construction of the first covering in 1984 to preserve it from deterioration and plundering.
In that same year, the installations were adapted with the objective of the creation of La Olmeda Museum in Saldaña (a villa of Palencia). The conclusion of the excavations was in 2004 with the preservation of the material culture that covered a great diversity of objects such as the high quality ceramic tableware called terra sigilata, personal metal decorations, agricultural tools, hunting weapons, glass recipients which reflect the opulence of the owning family, and other leisure objects that illustrate how was the aristocratic lifestyle.
All these objects, that can be found at the San Pedro Museum in Saldaña, and the posterior musealization of the villa have promoted that more than one million people had toured this place since the 1980s until nowadays. It has the upper cultural protection due to its designation as Cultural Interest Asset in 1996.
For further information regarding schedules and how to get to this place, visit this Roman villa’s webpage.
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