page_title: Villa of Domitian
section_title: The rotonda
hierarchical_section_title: Villa of Domitian / Description / The rotonda
caption_attribution_description: Albano Laziale, Chiesa Santa Maria della Rotonda
context_page_description: The Villa of Domitian, known as Albanum Domitiani or Albanum Caesari in Latin, was a vast and sumptuous Roman villa or palace built by Emperor Titus Flavius Domitian. It was situated 20 km outside Rome, in the Alban Hills, in the ancient territory of Ager Albanus.
  Today the remains of the villa are located mostly within the estate of the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo, and the rest in the towns of Castel Gandolfo and Albano Laziale. The Villa Barberini gardens are open to visitors.
context_section_description: This unique building has a cylindrical plan within a cube, similar but smaller to the Pantheon in Rome, also replicating the oculus (central hole). Its diameter is 16 m and the whole structure is made of opus mixtum.
  It is unclear why Domitian had this built so far from the residential complex of his villa. In the past it was believed to be a temple dedicated to Minerva and the Sun and the Moon, but Lugli objected that its plan was not of a typical Roman temple, and he therefore believed it was an isolated nymphaeum, a view shared by many today.
  In the Severan era this structure was incorporated into the perimeter wall of the Castra Albana and adapted for bathing by legionaries: to this phase belong the floor mosaics and the rectangular entrance front. Probably between the ninth and tenth century it was converted into a place of worship, and received the Eastern image of the Madonna dating from the 6th - 7th century.
caption: The Rotonda in Santa Maria della Rotonda
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