Villa romana
Studies on the antiquities of Albisola, which began in the second half of the 800, took to locate ancient Alba Docilia as a station in the road map of the Roman Empire (third and fourth centuries AD). The ancient complex in Giulio II Square, brought to light with the excavations to the 800 by Don Schiappapietra, it refers to a large villa (8000 square meters) of Roman imperial characteristics that linked the house with residential facilities and production services of a typical farm. They are recognizable district master (pars urbana), the rustic-productive sector (pars rustica or fructuaria) and thermae. Part of the settlement and the thermal area is currently visible in the archaeological area including the vast square in front of the train station; suddenly the industry is kept under the rustic porch adjacent while the wall remains existing under the square are made readable thanks to the horizontal alignment shown on the pavement. In the residential area of the villa, facing south, small rooms (cubicula) opened onto a peristyle colonnade with a rectangular basin to collect water. The remains found in the excavations reveal the elegant decoration of the porch with painted plaster, fluted pilasters and white marble figured with acanthus leaves and dolphins. Some rooms north were provided with a heating system by circulating hot air under the floor plane; spaces for the owner's living room were equipped with mosaic floors and marble inlays and painted walls and ceilings, which bear witness to a certain refinement at least at the height of the development of the villa, corresponding to the first and second century AD. In the rustic part, twenty rooms used as warehouses, accommodation servile and animal shelters. The thermae area includes a large circular building (laconicum), a sauna and a hot coated with hydraulic mortar. The monumentality of the bath led to interpret the complex with the Alba Docilia mansio.
