Decorative Arts · Sculpture

The decorative arts

Almost nothing is known about the villas built during the 1st century AD in the 'new' area of Conimbriga, that is, the area extending east of the plateau that the Romans included within the urban perimeter and which formed the entrance to the city. Successive remodelings destroyed all the architecture of that period, leaving only some foundations and numerous fragments of wall paintings and molded stucco, used as fill to level the rooms where mosaics were laid.

The exact conditions in which the sculptures from the excavations before 1962 were found are also unknown. However, their analysis and area of provenance allow us to admit that they belonged to the houses where, during the 1st century AD, the principes and magistri of the city settled with their families.

Mosaic was used very early in Conimbriga, but the existing fragments tell us little about what this art may have been in the city's early years. Most of the pavements that can be admired on the site itself date from the 3rd and 4th centuries.