The only Roman villa rediscovered in Potenza is that of Malvaccaro, located in a side street of Via Parigi.
The structure visible today can be dated between the III and the first half of the IV century.
The representative rooms of the villa are developed on several levels. Starting from the lower one, decorated with purple marble coverings (a type of white marble with “red” veins), it’s called also Phrygian, due to its origin from the homonymous region of the Asia Minor); there was an access to the triclinium (dining room), whose floor features a polychrome mosaic, with a scale motif framed by a band of triangles arranged in a herringbone pattern. The floor has a medallion centrally with an image of the three Graces, and it finishes with a large apsidal hall.
Here the guests enjoyed the image of the three Graces, in a context where the figurative representation of amphorae and baskets of fruits and flowers reminds of the Dionysian banquets.
The villa has undergone numerous renovations which have partly modified its original layout. In more recent times it’s also been used as a rural cottage, but perhaps originally it was a farm, on an important crossroads between Vulture and the interior of Basilicata, where agricultural products were produced and probably sold.