Nymphaeum

For other uses of this term, see Nymphaion.

A nymphaeum (Latin pl.: nymphaea) or nymphaion (Ancient Greek: νυμφαῖον, romanized: nymphaîon), in ancient Greece and Rome, was a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs.

The Jerash nymphaeum

These monuments were originally natural grottoes, which tradition assigned as habitations to the local nymphs. They were sometimes so arranged as to furnish a supply of water, as at Pamphylian Side. A nymphaeum dedicated to a local water nymph, Coventina, was built along Hadrian's Wall, in the northernmost reach of the Roman Empire. Subsequently, artificial grottoes took the place of natural ones.

Roman period

The nymphaeum at Caesarea Maritima, Israel

The nymphaea of the Roman period extended the sacral use to recreational aims.^[1] They were borrowed from the constructions of the Hellenistic east. At a minimum, Roman nymphaea may be no more than a niche set into a garden wall.^[2] But many larger buildings are known. Most were rotundas, and were adorned with statues and paintings. They served the threefold purpose of sanctuaries, reservoirs and assembly-rooms. A special feature was their use for the celebration of marriages. Such nymphaea existed in Corinth, Antioch and Constantinople; the remains of some twenty have been found in Rome and many in Africa. The so-called exedra of Herodes Atticus (which corresponds in all respects to a nymphaeum in the Roman style), the nymphaeum in the palace of Domitian and those in Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli (Tibur)—five in number—may be specially mentioned. The nymphaeum in Jerash, Jordan (illustration), was constructed in 191 AD. The fountain was originally embellished with marble facing on the lower level, painted plaster on the upper level, and topped with a half-dome roof, forming a giant niche. Water cascaded through seven carved lion's heads into small basins on the sidewalk.

In the Roman province of Asia, one of the most elaborate nymphaea was the Nymphaeum of Trajanus at Miletus, a three-story tabernacle façade fountain erected in 79–80 CE by Marcus Ulpius Traianus, father of the emperor Trajan, on the south side of the city Agora. The design combined a towering Corinthian façade connected by aediculae, places for a large sculpture, projecting side wings, and stacked cisterns and channels behind the façade that reorganized aqueduct water to a large frontal pool and toilets nearby. An engraving on the third story architrave records a major restoration under Gordian III (238–244 CE), and recent architectural study shows that this campaign involved extensive structural alignment and re assembly of the upper arrangements, not just renewal of the sculpture and decoration. Restoration traces include recut dowel and cramp holes, iron cramps, marble patches (emblemata), and masonry buttresses added to the rear wall and internal vaults, showing that the building had suffered significant structural damage, probably linked to seismic activity and collapsing. The Miletus evidence shows that monumental nymphaea could be subject to repeated, large scale restoration campaigns in the 3rd century, incorporating visual restoration with preventive stabilization in earthquake prone settings.

The alleged Nymphaeum Colonna at Genazzano, a ruined early 16th century center credited to Donato Bramante or his crowd, shows how Renaissance architects altered nymphaeum classifications (loggias, exedras, and octagonal basins) to create theatrical garden architecture inspired by Roman models. The structure combines a three-bay loggia, an apsed hall linked by Serliana arches, lateral exedras, and an adjoining octagonal pavilion with a circular basin, which earlier scholars misjudged as a Roman nymphaeum due to its plan and water features. Recent work has applied integrated digital workflows (total station survey, photogrammetry, 3D modelling, and 3D printing) to reconstruct the building’s original form and roof configuration, clarifying its construction phases. The study highlights Bramante’s use of proportion, perspective tricks in the Serliana entablature, and a Tuscan order like his work in the Vatican. The research also shows how modern digital documentation methods can help imagine lost or incomplete nymphaeum designs and connect their qualities to both scholars and the public.

From the 3rd to 6th centuries CE, a spring-fed nymphaeum devoted to the goddess and her nymphs became the center of private magical rites at the late antique sanctuary of Anna Perenna at Piazza Euclide in Rome. Excavations of the container and basin recovered over two dozen lead curse tablets, nested lead beakers, wax and clay “voodoo” figures, and other cursed objects invoking oriental demons such as Abraxas and, in some cases, blending these with Christian references to Christ. The writings contain names of victims and their mothers, voces magicae, graphic human and demonic figures, “holy” letter symbols, and demands for bodily harm (such as blinding or fever), revealing a sign of text and image in nymphaeum-based cursing. Some texts portray Abraxas as leading the nymphs or other hellish powers of the spring to harm the cursed, showing how the water shrine’s occupants were clarified as mediums in late antique magic. The Anna Perenna material shows that urban nymphaea could function not only as decorative fountains and sanctuaries but also as ritual spaces for popular magic in the later Roman Empire.

Nymphaea may be artificial grottoes, large-scale stonework to create or enhance a resemblance to a natural cave. Deliberately rough stones might be used—Pliny the Elder noted that pumice was often used to give the appearance of a cave.^[3] Water was a much-desired feature; at least a trickle, often flowing over the rocks to make them glisten.^[4]

Mosaics

Nymphaea were important in the architectural movement of mosaic from floor to walls and ceiling vaults in the 1st century. Initially they were often decorated with geometrical mosaics often incorporating shells, but by the end of the century could contain ambitious figure subjects.^[5]

Later periods

The term nymphaeum was also applied to the fountains of water in the atrium of the Christian basilica, which according to Eusebius were symbols of purification. Phiale is an equivalent Greek term.

A nymphaeum for al fresco summer dining featuring artificial grottoes with waterflows was designed by Bartolomeo Ammanati (1550–1553), and was reintroduced at the Villa Giulia, Rome.^[6]

In the 19th century, the conception of the nymphaeum was reinterpreted in the form of artificial “ruins” in landscape gardens, as shown by the false ruined nymphaeum at Villa Torlonia in Rome designed by Giovanni Battista Caretti between 1833 and 1835. This garden folly consists of a brick screen with a central apse recess flanked by six smaller recesses, framed by Corinthian lesenes and fronted by free standing travertine column drums, creating a theatrical backdrop for showing ancient statues and reused architectural elements. Among the reused elements are two richly carved Domitianic cornices credited to the architect Rabirius and a group of 15th century members likely from the workshop of Andrea Bregno, traced from the Colonna family collections and redefined as part of the “ruin”. Caretti also integrated purposeful signs of imitated decay and repair, broken capitals, brickwork, intentionally toppled columns, faux “patch” inserts, and exaggerated travertine weathering, so that the modern nymphaeum translates as a ruin and exhibit of fragments. The Torlonia nymphaeum illustrates how 19th century residents used nymphaeum forms and antique elements to build self-aware archaeological garden features that blended exaggerated decoration with authentic ancient material.

The 17th century nymphaeum at Carolei in Calabria, Italy, exhibits the restoration challenges faced by early modern nymphaea, which include high humidity, partially underground spaces, and continuous water basins. A recent study documented extensive biodeterioration of its limestone structure and wall paintings by vascular plants, mosses, fungi, cyanobacteria, and green algae, enabled by spongy calcarenite, cracks and fractures, and insufficient site maintenance. Survey of the plant life classified both low risk ruderal species and high hazard woody taxonomic groups threaten the stability of walls and pavements. A plant “hazard index” was put in place to prioritize control measures. Biofilms composed of threadlike cyanobacteria and green algae, together with fungi were shown to prompt staining, crust formation, and chemical and mechanical damage to the stone. It is argued that detailed diagnosis of controlled environments and biology is necessary for designing sustainable preservation strategies for nymphaea, including targeted plant removal, biocidal treatments, and innovative approaches such as nanomaterials and biocleaning.

Outlying examples

Excavation at Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) in Britain identified a monumental coping stone by a lasting spring just west of the Roman amphitheater, which was reclassified as part of a nymphaeum rather than the arena wall. Study of its dimensions (bell shaped profile, cyma molding, and lewis-hole) together with its comparison to amphitheater copings at Chester, London, and Silchester’s town walls, shows that the block is too finely carved and too narrow to have formed part of the amphitheater parapet. Its location outside the later town defenses and directly overlooking a “Roman Fountain” spring makes a commemorative source unlikely and instead backs recognition as the coping of a monumental basin acknowledging the water source and a related, unfamiliar divine being.

Similarities can be seen with the basin and enclosure at Coventina’s Well on Hadrian’s Wall and with the spring nymphaeum at the Roman villa of Chedworth, proposing a broader local tradition of rural spring monuments within the western Empire. A comparison in style of the Silchester coping, cut in Lower Greensand, with architectural walls in the town’s basilica suggests a Hadrianic–Antonine date, making it an early 2nd century model of a nymphaeum in a Romano British setting.

In the Roman Near East, a major urban nymphaeum lasts at Amman (ancient Philadelphia), where a large half octagonal monument with a well-articulated façade was built over a cave and water source near the city’s main cardo. The structure’s foundations rest on a series of barrel vaults that flattened the sloping terrain and guided stream water beneath the building, allowing a vast basin and façade to be raised directly above active waterways. Extensive stone decay, black crust formation, cracking, and loss of carved and architectural detail caused by long-term exposure to rising damp, salt crystallization, biological growth, heavy traffic, air pollution, and contemporary infrastructure (including sewers beneath the monument). A recent conservation project combined mineralogical and chemical classification, cleaning, acrylic and nano-lime assembly, selective restoration, pollution and soil studies, and 3D laser scanning to stabilize the monument and its location. The program has also reopened the fountain as the “Nymphaeum Archaeological Park”, combining preservation with urban design, tourism, and community participation in downtown Amman.

Gallery

• 
  The Nymphenbad of the Zwinger palace in Dresden, Germany
• 
  Nymphaeum of the Villa Giulia in Rome
• 
  The nymphaeum at Villa Barbaro in Maser, Veneto, Italy
• 
  The remains of the nymphaeum in the basement of the Hôtel de Besenval in Paris

See also

• Roman gardens