The Roman Villa at Skala
WHY YOU’ LL LOVE IT
One of the most impressive mosaics can be found in the second floor and it represents an allegoric picture of Fthonos, presenting himself as a young woman suffering, when seeing other people’s happiness.
The Roman Villa at Skala

In 1956, the remains of a roman mansion were discovered during excavations.  The Roman Villa is situated on the far southern side of the island and on the very outskirts of Skala and is well worth exploring if you are in the area. It was built during the 2nd century AD and is considered to be a type of rural villa. Six rooms have been preserved, four of which have mosaic flours whilst the sixth one is an open courtyard.

The Roman Villa is close to the village of Skala, near the waterfront. It was built in the 2nd century AD, and is supposed to be perished in fire during the 4th century AD. It belongs to the architectural type of rustic mansion. Amongst the six chambers that remain, four of them have fragmented floor surfaces and one is an outdoor yard.

The main entrance of the building faced south and it is assumed that the walkway was through a wooden bridge, since a stream was running alongside. The decoration of the fragmented floor surfaces is interesting for the composite geometric and herbal motif designs and the pictorial representations. The central part of the fragmented floor surface in the hallway, represents Fthonos (envy) in the form of a young man being attacked by four wild animals.

There is an inscription in the bottom, which mentions Krateros as the craftsman of the floor surface. In the surface floor of the second chamber there is pictorial representation which depicts a sacrificial ritual. It renders two children standing with respect in both sides of a tomb and animals to be sacrificed. In the bottom, the inscription refers to the sacrificial ritual and the honoured gods. The floors in the other two chambers are decorated in geometric motifs.

An early Christian church was built in the eastern part of the third room, which was perished in fire. The Roman manor was brought to light in 1957 after the excavations of V. Kallipolitis.