La villa romana di Gradola a Capri. Nuove indagini e prospettive di ricerca

The Roman villa of Gradola, built on the north-western side of the island of Capri, despite being exactly above one of the most popular places of the world, the Blue Grotto, is certainly one of the lesser-known archaeological sites of the island. However, thanks to the activities undertaken within the project "Masgaba. An archaeological map for the island of Capri", it was possible to "rediscover" a significant part of the villa's remains and carry out a new archaeological survey using laser scanning and digital photogrammetry. The new survey has highlighted the planimetric features of the building (a basis villae), which is notable for a rare semicircular structure (a hemicycle with deep niches on the external side), situated in sea-view panoramic position along the steep coastal area. This paper, starting from the analysis of the surviving walls (built in opus incertum and reticulatum), attempts to identify or reconstruct the general scheme of the substructive structure with particular attention to the geometric genesis of the hemicycle and its articulations. Finally, a renewed comparison with others architectures is set up, and the particular "affinity" with the nearby Villa Damecuta, which seems to share, in terms of orientation and geometrical shape, a very similar design scheme, is pointed out.