Museum of mosaics

Overview

The Museum of Mosaics in Devnya was designed by architect Kamen Goranov on part of the ancient foundations of a building with mosaics (villa urbana), built in the late III - early IV century (the time of Constantine I the Great) on the site of an earlier building (buildings) destroyed during the Gothic invasions in 250 - 251. With repairs and reconstructions the building existed until the beginning of the VII century. The building occupies the area of ​​an entire neighborhood (insula) with a length of 37.15 m (north-south) and a width of 37.75 m (east-west). Her plan follows the traditions of the Greco-Roman atrium-peristyle dwelling. Around a courtyard (atrium) (11.11 x 5.87 m), paved with stone slabs, with a masonry well in the middle (0.76 m in diameter), surrounded on 3 sides by a covered gallery with a limestone colonnade (peristyle) 92.63 sq. M), there are 21 residential, commercial and storage premises with a total area of ​​1402 m². The walls of the living quarters were covered with colored plasters and frescoes, with gypsum plasters. Five of the rooms of the building and the portico are covered with multicolored floor mosaics - one of the best examples of Roman mosaic art from that time, found in Bulgaria. The museum is part of 100 national tourist sites.