VILLA ROMANA E ANTIQUARIUM DI DESENZANO DEL GARDA

La Roman Villa of Desenzano, unearthed in the 1921, represents the most important evidence in northern Italy of the great late antique villas. Built at the end of the 1st century BC., residence directly overlooked the lake and was equipped with docks, berths and probably also of fishponds intended for fish farming, confirming its aristocratic character and close relationship with water.

The complex preserves over 240 square metres of polychrome mosaics of extraordinary quality, among the most refined of the period, with figurative scenes depicting Cupids intent on the grape harvest or thrown on chariots in the race, maenads and satyrs, wild animals e allegories, in a rich symbolic and decorative repertoire. According to some hypotheses, the owner of the villa may have been Flavius Magnus Decentius, the emperor's brother Magnentium, from which the current name of the city of Desenzano.