Architecturally priceless mosaics at the Milreu Roman Ruins in Estoi are receiving specialist attention after €30,000 was made available by the Algarve’s Directorate of Culture.
The mosaics are one of the key reasons that the site, a Roman villa and farm, is one of the Algarve's most popular historical attractions and include depictions of fish, dolphins and the famous, if rather scary, squid, (see below).
The original mosaics, that now are being carefully repaired and reset, were laid down by craftsmen working in the 3rd and 4th Centuries.
The award money is being used to fund expert restorers from ‘Nova Conservação - Restauro e Conservação do Património Artístico e Cultural, Lda’ and their work should take around five months to complete.
It’s all part of a larger project to clean up and re-present the Roman Ruins of Milreu. The overall grant, a healthy €530,000, has been made available under the CRESC Algarve 2020 grants programme.
The Directorate of Culture states that, "the work in progress includes cleaning the mosaics, removing weeds, applying new mortars and sealing the joints.”
This specialist workers can be seen in action by visitors, as the Ruins of Milreu will remain open to the public during the progress.
Milreu Roman Villa
The site includes a signeural house, organized around a central patio, change rooms in the east, temple in the south and agricultural installations. The central patio consists of a peristyle with 22 columns. A thermal spa includes a sequence of apodyterium, frigidarium, circular bathing pool, tepidarium and caldarium decorated with mosaics (one with oblong fish designs). The ruins of an aquatic sanctuary include an altar that served as paleo-Christian church, as indicated from the presence of a baptismal pool and a small mausoleum on the patio.
Nearby the ruins is the 16th-century rural house, used as interpretative center, (see below), that includes cylindrical buttresses along the outer corners.
See also: Milreu Roman Ruins
