If you would like to see a google satellite photograph of Abicada click here.
I visited Abicada which is near Alvor (a little to the west of Portimão) in the Algarve, Portugal, in February 2011. Almost nothing seems to be known about this Villa except that it was probably built in the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD. It is thought that it must have been a farm / fishing / salt production centre and yet there is no evidence yet of buildings associated with these activities that have been found. Abicada is surrounded on three sides by ancient salt pans and as the Algarve salt pans were first created here by the Romans or perhaps the Phoenicians before them, there is a good chance that the main produce from Abicada was salt. To read a wonderful article by Marc Millon on Algarve salt go to: http://www.necton.pt/en/slow-food.htm
The land to the north east was used very successfully for intensive fruit farming until about 30 years ago. Several bore holes were drilled, a small reservoir built and the land was terraced and irrigated. More recently it became a dairy farm which I understand was not a success and was sold to a developer who has not yet done anything with the land.
Evidence of other buildings built by the Romans there may well have been covered up when the terracing was created when the land was used to grow fruit . Given the Roman fondness for bathing one would expect baths to have been discovered close to the Villa, nothing of this sort has been found yet. The Villa itself is approximatel 60 metres in length and 30 metres wide. It is a most unusual design, having a central part of the accommodation consisting of 5 small square rooms around a hexagonal peristyle (partially covered by a roof supported by stone columns on one side) courtyard, it is thought that these 5 rooms would have been bedrooms for the male members of the family, On the west side of the villa there are several small rooms around a square peristyle for the female members of the family. On the east side of the house there are several rooms, several of which do not have a mosaic floor which suggests that this was the kitchen / servants area of the villa. |
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Approximately half a kilometre north east of the villa just the far side of the valley that has been terraced is a strange 7 sided stone and cement building. I have no idea at all what it was or when it was built, it is not a Roman building but it could be a Moorish building or possibly much later. There are some stone buttresses on the outside which I would have thought were built to strengthen the walls from pressure from the inside, this suggests to me that the building was built perhaps to hold water and may be a part of an earlier irrigation system. To see a google arial photograph of this building click here. There is a photograph that I took of the building from the west to the left of this paragraph. If anyone has any idea as to what this building might have been and when it was built I would be grateful if they would get in touch with me.
Abicada is quite difficult to find, approaching from the 125 there is a narrow road with a signpost to Abicada which can be read only when coming from the east, it is between Penina and Figuera and to the east of where the road goes over the railway line. Proceed down this fairly rough road for more than a kilometre and it is at the end of the road immediately to the south of some farm buildings known as Horta de São Fransisco, it is shown under that name on google maps. Even when you get there you won't see the villa because it is hidden immediately to the south of three concrete silage clamps.
Standing just in front of the ruins looking to the south the view of the Alvor Estuary and the sea beyond must be one of the most beautiful outlooks in the Algarve, the generations of Romans who lived at Abicada were extremely fortunate in their ancestor's choice of location for the villa.
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