Hoheneck Rural Villa
N 48° 54.458 E 009° 11.897
32U E 514529 N 5417206
The Hoheneck villa near Ludwigsburg can be seen as a typical example of an average size Roman villa.
Waymark Code: WM14QX
Location: Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Date Posted: 01/14/2007
Views: 222
(The following is translated from interpretive panels in German found at the site).
The Roman villa of Hoheneck lay in a thickly settled region in Roman times. In the middle Neckar region between Bad Wimpfen and Stuttgart, a multiplicity of finds are known adjacent to some few citylike settlements.
One can, for the most part, suppose that these finds are the remains of former rural villas (villae ruticae in latin). The concentration of sites is explained without difficulty due to the excellent quality of the soil in this region as well as the proximity to buyers of agricultural products (Limes forts and large settlements in the hinterland.)
The villas, agriculture, animal husbandry, and other operations, as isolated homesteads, largely formed the look of the landscape. There were no farming villages here, as in the Middle Ages and in modern times. It was not seldom that individual villas lay 1000 to 2000 meters from each other.
Unfortunately, only very few villas in the middle Neckar region have been thoroughly archeologically excavated and studied. The Hoheneck villa can be seen as a typical example of an average size Roman villa. The main building, the living quarters of the operators, stood in a dominant position. An integrated bathhouse was included. Several farm buildings were located along the villa's perimeter wall. Unfortunately, one can often not ascertain the exact function of these farm buildings because of the present predominently bad condition of the ruin. In many cases they were used as storage for grain. A fountain was indespensible as a water supply. It was exceptional that, as here in Hoheneck, a villa would have its own brickyard. An effective network of roads linked the villa with markets for argricultural commodities.
One can imagine fields and pastures around the site but the details are unknown. The main task of a villa rustica was to be, as much as possible, self sufficient (own brickyard), and on the other hand to produce a large surplus which would allow it to realize a profit.
The Main Building
The main building, the living and working quarters of the operators, stood on protruding posts, at the top of the slope. The archeological excavation clearly uncovered phases of construction in the history of the grand house: The first phase consisted of a still relatively humble construction (27 x 20.5 m), whose representative front emphasizes the meaning of the building within the entire site. Two slightly projecting corner buildings flanked a roofed columned hall through which one entered. Behind the columned hall stretched a large hall whose roof was held up by four strong pillars. The living rooms were located principally in the area of the corner buildings which one must imagine having several floors. The way up to the second level is guessed to be on the east side of the large hall. Stairs led from the large hall down to a cellar which was located under the western corner building. The cellar served mostly for storing provisions and easily perishable goods. Charred wood pieces found in the debris of the cellar came from the ceiling beams above the cellar. A few colorful painted plaster fragments found in the debris of the cellar can only hint at the real composition of the room above. The massive roof surfaces were covered with flat, durable, clay tiles.
The building was extended to the west, north, and east at a later time. Up to the western enclosure of the hall, the original construction remained the kernal of the modified building, especially the front with the corner rooms (whose dimensions where now 29 x 24.3 m). A new floorplan is found on the west side due to the addition of large rooms there. However, these required a reduction in the size of the central hall whereby the location of the supporting pillars lost some of the balanced proportion of the first construction phase. In the north and east, spacious corridors were added on. It has never been determined which function the rooms on the west side fulfilled. The reconstruction conveys an impression of the expanded building, but the details of the construction remain largly hypothetical.
In a last construction phase, an angular addition was added to the northeastern corner area, whose function also remains unclear.
Known as a ruin for several hundred years, the plot of land called "Eglosheimer Burg" was quarried as a cheap and convenient source of building material. In the Summer of 1911 the future Landeskonservator Prof. Dr. Oscar Paret (1889 - 1972), then a student, carried out the first archeological excavation and exposed nearly all of the floor plan of the Roman villa. This represents for the state of Württemburg, the first methodical research of an agricultural estate. Paret's reconstruction achieved a significant prominence in the history of such research.
As the area was threatened by encroaching residential construction projects, the Landesdenkmalamt (state monument bureau) undertook additional excavations (1986). Most recently, excavations undertaken by the city of Ludwigsburg took place in 1991/1992. Subsequently, the floorplan of the principal building and bathhouse could be marked out in slabs of limestone and the surrounding greenspace was added.
With the exception of the bathhouse, the Roman walls already were in bad condition at the time of the 1911 excavation. Nevertheless, the construction history of the villa was by and large pieced together.
The end of the agricultural operation is guessed to be around the middle of the 3rd century A.D.
The objects found during the 1911 excavation can be found in an exhibit of the Ludwigsburg city museum.
Most Relevant Historical Period: Roman Empire > 27 B.C.
Admission Fee: Free
Opening days/times:
24/7
Web Site: [Web Link]
Condition: Partly intact or reconstructed
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