SIRMIO
(Sirmione) Brescia prov., Lombardy, Italy.
A site celebrated for a large Roman villa called
the Grottos of Catullus, on the peninsula that juts out
into Lake Garda. Built in the 1st c. A.D. above an earlier
U-shaped building from the middle of the 1st c. B.C., it is
240 by 105 m and is supported on the side toward the
lake by high vaulted foundations. The villa is rich in porticos, cisterns, and fountains. It has a grand ambulacrum
159 m long and a large garden, now planted in olives.
Excavation has brought to light parts of beautiful frescos
in the Second and Fourth Styles, now preserved in the
Antiquarium.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Orti Manara,
La penisola di Sirmione sul lago di Garda illustrata (1856); M. Mirabella Roberti in
Storia di Brescia, I (1963) 291-95.
M. MIRABELLA ROBERTI
