MAR - Museo Archeologico Romano Positano

About

The valley in which Positano is located, with its beach, its steep limestone cliffs and its salubrious climate, witnessed the establishment of a sumptuous roman villa designed for “otium” – leisure time – at the end of the 1st century BC. As part of the Surrentum area (modern Sorrento), the villa was one of a number of luxury villas that had evolved on the Sorrentine peninsula by early Julio-Claudian times. Villas on the Sorrento peninsula may have become desirable when Tiberius retired to the island of Capri in 26 AD and members of the élite may have wished to be only a short boat-trip away from the imperial court. The complex at Positano featured a peristyle with, most probably, a central garden and a fountain. This was described in the late eighteenth century by the Swiss architect Karl Weber. Today all this is a museum MAR (Archeological roman Museum)

At a glance

• Typical visit: about 30 minutes