Hadrian's Villa

Hadrian's Villa is a 125-hectare imperial palace complex about 30 kilometres east of Rome, just outside Tivoli, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Emperor Hadrian had it built between 118 and 134 AD as his summer residence and final retreat, gathering architectural quotations from across the empire: the Canopus with its long reflecting pool evoked an Egyptian sanctuary, the Maritime Theatre was a private island ringed by a moat, and the site also held bath complexes, library pavilions, temples and an entire underground service network for the staff. After Hadrian's death his successors kept using the villa, before it fell into ruin in late antiquity and was quarried during the Renaissance for the nearby Villa d'Este. Today the ruins are explored along long pine-lined avenues.