The Roman Edifice with Mosaic
- Historic monument A; code LMI CT-II-m-A-02826
- Dates back to the IV-VI centuries A.D, the roman-byzantine era
- Placed between Ovidius Square and the Roman Baths boulevard (previously Marinarilor)
The edifice with mosaic was discovered in the autumn of the year 1959 during the building of some apartment blocks. Thus ensued successive archaeological campaigns during which the edifice was researched, then restoration and conservation works were undertaken in order for it to enter the tourist circuit. The edifice dates back to the turn of the Third and Fourth centuries A.D, being a remarkable architectural feat of the early byzantine period to the West of Pontus Euxinus.
The ensemble is especially known for it’s interior design.The entire area of the room on the upper terrace is decorated with multicolored mosaic, and the walls are clad in marble decorated with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic, plant and geometric motifs. The paving mosaic, of which about 400 square meters have been preserved to this day, included complex geometric decorations, but also zoomorphic ones of which only the image of a white pigeon hidden among the vegetation has been preserved. The authors of the mosaic were very skilled traveling masters commissioned by the locals to do the job.
The edifice was built on three terraces, offering not only a space for carrying out port and commercial activities, but also representing a center of social, cultural and even political public activities. This purpose went especially to the large hall with mosaic on the upper terrace which was linked on the North-East side with the main square of the old town. The medium and lower terraces, close to the port quays, supported a series of vaulted rooms meant to be used as storage spaces (the ones on the lower terrace, the third one), and as trading spaces for the goods that came to the harbor (the ones on the medium terrace, the second one, and the adjacent plaza). Additionally, the three terraces of the edifice provided ground support, protecting the harbor from landslides.
