Milreu Roman Villa

Photo: Bextrel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The ruins of a grand Roman villa at Estói, complete with fish mosaics and a temple that later became a church. Milreu was a luxury estate from the first to the fourth century, and what survives is remarkably legible: bathhouse walls with dolphin and fish mosaics, olive presses, and the tall podium temple that early Christians later converted, one of the few of its kind in Portugal. Interpretive panels are decent and the site rarely draws more than a handful of visitors at a time, so you can take it slowly under the trees while the rural setting drives home how comfortable Roman country life was. Pair it with the palace gardens up the road in Estói; the walk between the two takes about ten minutes.

Found by Adam

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