Milreu

MILREU Algarve, Portugal.

A Roman villa near Estoi, 9 km N of Faro. The villa is arranged around a peristyle, the N side of which is unfortunately beneath modern construction; W of the peristyle are baths. The mosaics are plentiful but damaged; those in the baths represent sea life.

To the S are the ruins of a temple built on a low podium revetted with wall mosaics of fish and shells, and set in the center of a walled courtyard. The cella (7.5 m sq.) ends in an apse. Although the temple has been interpreted as a temple of Venus, it was surely dedicated to aquatic deities. It appears to date from the first half of the 4th c. A.D., and was transformed into a Christian church in the same century. The finds have been scattered between the museums of Lagos and Faro, and the National Museum of Archaeology in Lisbon. A portrait of Gallienus, found here, is in the Lagos museum.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

M. Lyster Franco, “As ruínas romanas de Milreau,” Boletim da Junta de Província do Algarve 1 (1942); T. Hauschild, Der Kultbaus neben dem römïschen Ruinenkomplex bei Estoi in der Provincia Lusitania (1964) MPI.

J.ALARCAO