Erftstadt

  • Roman villa in Frauenthal

  • The aerial photograph shows an agricultural estate from Roman times (villa rustica). Ceramic finds collected from the surface of the fields in this area prove that the estate was cultivated from the 2nd to the 4th century AD. It consisted of a stone main building and several outbuildings, presumably made of wood. These served as residential buildings for servants, stables, storage rooms or workshops. The farmyard was probably surrounded by a ditch or a hedge.

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Not visible, but still there: the Roman porticus villa in Frauenthal is located in an open field, only about 100 metres southeast of Carl-Schurz-Straße, which runs exactly along the route of the Roman road, the Via Agrippa. It was discovered in 1962 through an aerial photograph. In agricultural areas, walls hidden in the ground often appear as light-coloured strips with lower vegetation, as the plants in these areas receive fewer nutrients than in the surrounding farmland.

The landowner's residential building has a frontage of 50 metres, and the entire farm area is estimated at just under five hectares, making Villa Frauenthal one of the larger complexes of its kind.

The main building of the villa had a so-called "avant-corps" – the front of the main building had two protruding, tower-like sections at the corners, between which an open colonnade (porticus) stretched. The main house, which was probably two storeys high, contained partly heated living quarters and a bathroom.

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