THE MUSEUM
The building that houses the Montecchio Museum, MAPEM (Museo Archeologico Paleontologico Etnografico dei monti Martani) was built in the fourteenth century building and restored in 2013. The archaeological collections form the heart of the museum, and it also contains paleontological and ethnographic pieces collected from the local area. In addition to the archaeological artefacts there are numerous fossils that outline the geological history of the Martani mountains and a wide range of objects and artefacts that tell the story of daily life, agricultural traditions, local crafts, and customs of Umbrian communities over the centuries.
THE VILLAGE
Montecchio grew up close to the route of the ancient consular road Via Flaminia, which was opened between 223 and 219 BCE by Caio Flaminio. It became formally recognised in the twelfth century when it was fortified. It was known as the “Normady district,” probably because the Normans settled in this area around the eleventh century. It yielded to Spoleto in 1247 under Cardinal Capocci. It was a fief of Giano until the thirteenth century. Together, both Montecchio and Giano ceded to Spoleto, and then, in the second half of the fourteenth century it passed under the control of the Trinci family of Foligno.
The walls of the castle date to the sixteenth century. On the entrance to the town there is an old Spoleto coat of arms (1). Montecchio’s coat of arms, which shows three mountains is of a later period, and can be seen on the Town Hall (2). The church of Saint Bartholomew is inside the town walls. Its façade has an arched portal with two recesses and within the lunette there’s an interesting bas-relief dated to 1223, with various characters and iconographic symbols that lead back to the figure of Emperor Frederick II of Swabia (3,4). Inside the church there is a seventeenth century painting depicting the “Marriage of the Virgin” (5). There is also a bas-relief (6) and a capital (7), which was used as a lectern, from the Middle Ages.
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THE ROMAN VILLA
Most of the archaeological finds preserved in the museum were found in Villa Rufione which located nearby. Its structure dates to the Early Imperial Age. The first clues of the villa’s presence were identified during a reconnaissance in 1999, but even as far back as 1924, the historian Romanelli speaks of the discovery of an inscription and a dolio in the area. Following ten excavation campaigns, we have confirmed the existence of a late Republican villa which was further developed in the Imperial Era and was in continual use up until the end of the second century CE. It offers valuable evidence and is one of the most important Roman Era villas in Umbria. The presence of rich in mosaics and frescoes mean it was a prestigious Roman residence (8).
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For Romans, the term villa always referred to a dwelling that was outside the city walls. But what makes the villas in central Italy unique and distinguishes them from later villas is the way in which they were used.
Villas existed because land ownership was concentrated in the hands of a narrow social class. The aristocracy often owned large estates, which, rather than being concentrated in an individual location, were scattered in different areas. The aristocracy could not live full time in their villas because they were required to be present in the city of Rome to participate in Rome’s governing bodies. Therefore, the owners were only in residence for part of the year.
The villa was not a place that the owner spent time enjoyed the pleasures of the countryside. Instead, they were places of intense cultural and literary activities, which were more easily cultivated there, than in the city.
As was often the case, legionnaires at the end of their careers received a document that legally sanctioned the end of their military service, they were then given a cash allowance and, for those in the highest ranks, a plot of land. The latter could have been the case for Rufione (end of the first century BCE.), Suetonius mentions him in (De vita Caesarum 1.76). After having served under the banner of Caesar, he was assigned ownership of a farm in the heart of Regio VI, close to the Via Flaminia, on which, later, he would build the villa. This wealthy landowner maintained his relations with the imperial family in the Augustan Era, whose protection would have allowed him to become economically comfortable.
The structure covers an area of about 8,000 square meters and has a late Hellenistic appearance with terraces and pavilions intended for various functions (9). The first phase of the villa’s construction is characterized by the existence of a large ergastulum to accommodate the servants, a lararium (10) and a thermal facility. The latter preserves the prefurnium (11). There are two thermal baths which house tubules and pillars used to convey hot-air that form part of the underfloor heating (12). In the Flavian period (end of the first century CE.) the villa underwent a complete restructing. Production spaces were expanded, and the residential areas was reduced. Periods of residency in the villa decreased in the third and fourth centuries CE, and the villa probably became purely productive, and at the end of the fourth century CE. Production finally stopped when the Western Roman Empire itself ended and this stretch of the Via Flaminia declined as the eastern one became favoured.
