Avilla is a type of house that was originally anancient Romanupper class country house that provided an escape from urban life.[1] Since its origins in theRoman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of theRoman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified inLate Antiquity, sometimes transferred to the Church for reuse as amonastery. They gradually re-evolved through theMiddle Ages into elegant upper-class country homes. In theearly modern period, any comfortable detached house with a garden near a city or town was likely to be described as a villa; most surviving villas have now been engulfed bysuburbia. In modern parlance, "villa" can refer to various types and sizes of residences, ranging from thesuburbansemi-detached double villa to, in some countries, especially around theMediterranean, residences of above average size in the countryside.
thevilla urbana, a suburban or country seat that could easily be reached fromRome or another city for a night or two. They often featured decorated rooms and porticoes.[2]
thevilla rustica, the farm-house estate that was permanently occupied by the servants who had charge generally of the estate, which would centre on the villa itself, perhaps only seasonally occupied.[1][3] The Romanvillae rusticae at the heart oflatifundia were the earliest versions of what later and elsewhere became calledmanors andplantations.
In terms of design, there was often little difference in the main residence between these types at any particular level of size, but the presence or absence of farm outbuildings reflected the size and function of the estate.
Not included asvillae were thedomus, city houses for the élite and privileged classes, and theinsulae, blocks ofapartment buildings for the rest of the population. InSatyricon (1st century CE),Petronius described the wide range of Roman dwellings. Another type of villae is the "villa maritima", a seaside villa, located on the coast.
There was an important villa maritima inBarcola near Trieste. This villa was located directly on the coast and was divided into terraces in a representation area in which luxury and power was displayed, a separate living area, a garden, some facilities open to the sea and a thermal bath. Not far from this noble place, which was already popular with the Romans because of its favorable microclimate, one of the most important Villa Maritima of its time, theMiramare Castle, was built in the 19th century.[4]
Wealthy Romans also escaped the summer heat in the hills round Rome, especially around Tibur (Tivoli andFrascati), such as atHadrian's Villa.Cicero allegedly possessed no fewer than seven villas, the oldest of which was nearArpinum, which he inherited.Pliny the Younger had three or four, of which the example near Laurentium is the best known from his descriptions.
Roman writers refer with satisfaction to the self-sufficiency of theirlatifundium villas, where they drank their ownwine and pressed their ownoil. This was an affectation of urban aristocrats playing at being old-fashioned virtuous Roman farmers; it has been said that the economic independence of later rural villas was a symptom of the increasing economic fragmentation of theRoman Empire.
Archaeologists have meticulously examined numerousRoman villas in England. Like their Italian counterparts, they were complete working agrarian societies of fields andvineyards, perhaps eventileworks orquarries, ranged round a high-status power centre with its baths and gardens.[3] The grand villa atWoodchester preserved itsmosaic floors when theAnglo-Saxon parish church was built (not by chance) upon its site. Grave-diggers preparing for burials in the churchyard as late as the 18th century had to punch through the intact mosaic floors. The even more palatialvilla rustica atFishbourne nearWinchester was built (uncharacteristically) as a large open rectangle, withporticos enclosing gardens entered through a portico. Towards the end of the 3rd century, Roman towns inBritain ceased to expand: like patricians near the centre of the empire, Roman Britons withdrew from the cities to their villas, which entered on a palatial building phase, a "golden age" of villa life.Villae rusticae are essential in the Empire's economy.
Two kinds of villa-plan in Roman Britain may be characteristic of Roman villas in general. The more usual plan extended wings of rooms all opening onto a linking portico, which might be extended at right angles, even to enclose acourtyard. The other kind featured an aisled central hall like abasilica, suggesting the villa owner's magisterial role. The villa buildings were often independent structures linked by their enclosed courtyards.Timber-framed construction, carefully fitted withmortises and tenons anddowelled together, set on stone footings, were the rule, replaced by stone buildings for the important ceremonial rooms. Traces of windowglass have been found, as well as ironwork windowgrilles.
With thedecline and collapse of theWestern Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries, the villas were more and more isolated and came to be protected by walls. In England the villas were abandoned,looted, and burned byAnglo-Saxon invaders in the fifth century, but the concept of an isolated, self-sufficient agrarian working community, housed close together, survived into Anglo-Saxon culture as thevill, with its inhabitants – if formally bound to the land – asvilleins.
In regions on the Continent,aristocrats and territorial magnates donated large working villas and overgrown abandoned ones to individualmonks; these might become the nuclei ofmonasteries. In this way, the Italian villa system oflate Antiquity survived into theearly Medieval period in the form of monasteries that withstood the disruptions of theGothic War (535–554) and theLombards. About 529Benedict of Nursia established his influential monastery ofMonte Cassino in the ruins of a villa atSubiaco that had belonged toNero.
As Europe's influence spread to other cultures, the form, and use of the villa would also spread as well.[5] In post-Roman times avilla referred to a self-sufficient, usually fortified Italian orGallo-Roman farmstead. It was economically as self-sufficient as avillage and its inhabitants, who might be legally tied to it asserfs werevilleins. TheMerovingianFranks inherited the concept, followed by the Carolingian French but the later French term wasbasti orbastide.
Villa/Vila (or its cognates) is part of many Spanish and Portuguese placenames, likeVila Real andVilladiego: avilla/vila is a town with acharter (fuero orforal) of lesser importance than aciudad/cidade ("city"). When it is associated with a personal name,villa was probably used in the original sense of a country estate rather than a chartered town. Later evolution has made the Hispanic distinction betweenvillas andciudades a purely honorific one.Madrid is theVilla yCorte, the villa considered to be separate from the formerly mobileroyal court, but the much smallerCiudad Real was declaredciudad by the Spanish crown.
TheQuattrocento villa gardens were treated as a fundamental and aesthetic link between a residential building and the outdoors, with views over a humanized agriculturallandscape, at that time the only desirable aspect ofnature. Later villas and gardens include thePalazzo Pitti andBoboli Gardens in Florence, and theVilla di Pratolino inVaglia.
Rome had more than its share of villas with easy reach of the small sixteenth-century city: the progenitor, the firstvilla suburbana built since Antiquity, was theBelvedere orpalazzetto, designed byAntonio del Pollaiuolo and built on the slope above theVatican Palace.
TheVilla Madama, the design of which, attributed to Raphael and carried out byGiulio Romano in 1520, was one of the most influential private houses ever built; elements derived from Villa Madama appeared in villas through the 19th century.Villa Albani was built near the Porta Salaria. Other are theVilla Borghese; theVilla Doria Pamphili (1650); theVilla Giulia ofPope Julius III (1550), designed byVignola. The Roman villasVilla Ludovisi and Villa Montalto, were destroyed during the late nineteenth century in the wake of thereal estate bubble that took place in Rome after the seat of government of a united Italy was established at Rome.
In the later 16th century in the northeasternItalian Peninsula thePalladian villas of the Veneto, designed byAndrea Palladio (1508–1580), were built inVicenza in theRepublic of Venice. Palladio always designed his villas with reference to their setting. He often unified all the farm buildings into the architecture of his extended villas while focusing on symmetry and perfect proportion.[6]
Soon after inGreenwich England, following his 1613–1615Grand Tour,Inigo Jones designed and built theQueen's House between 1615 and 1617 in an earlyPalladian architecture style adaptation in another country. The Palladian villa style renewed its influence in different countries and eras and remained influential for over four hundred years, with theNeo-Palladian a part of the late 17th century and onRenaissance Revival architecture period.
In the early 18th century the English took up the term, and applied it to compact houses in the country,[7] especially those accessible from London:Chiswick House is an example of such a "party villa". Thanks to the revival of interest in Palladio andInigo Jones, soonNeo-Palladian villas dotted the valley of theRiver Thames and English countryside.Marble Hill House in England was conceived originally as a "villa" in the 18th-century sense.[8]
In the nineteenth century, the termvilla was extended to describe any largesuburban house that was free-standing in alandscaped plot of ground. By the time 'semi-detached villas' were being erected at the turn of the twentieth century, the term collapsed under its extension and overuse.
During the 19th and 20th century, the term "villa" became widespread for detached mansions in Europe. Special forms are for instancespa villas (Kurvillen in German) andseaside villas (Bädervillen in German), that became especially popular at the end of the 19th century. The tradition established back then continued throughout the 20th century and even until today.
Another trend was the erection of rather minimalist mansions in theBauhaus style since the 1920s, that also continues until today.
In Denmark, Norway and Sweden "villa" denotes most forms ofsingle-family detached homes, regardless of size and standard.
In Indonesia, the term "villa" is applied to Dutch colonial country houses (landhuis). Nowadays, the term is more popularly applied to vacation rental usually located in countryside area.
In Australia, "villas" or "villa units" are terms used to describe a type oftownhouse complex which contains, possibly smaller attached or detached houses of up to 3–4 bedrooms that were built since the early 1980s.
In South Korea, the term "villa" refers to small multi-household house with 4 floors or less.[18]
In Cambodia, "villa" is used as a loanword in the local language of Khmer, and is generally used to describe any type of detached townhouse that features yard space. The term does not apply to any particular architectural style or size, the only features that distinguish a Khmer villa from another building are the yard space and being fully detached. The terms "twin-villa" and "mini-villa" have been coined meaning semi-detached and smaller versions respectively. Generally, these would be more luxurious and spacious houses than the more common row houses. The yard space would also typically feature some form of garden, trees or greenery. Generally, these would be properties in major cities, where there is more wealth and hence more luxurious houses.
