Lullingstone Roman Villa

Lullingstone Roman Villa stands beside the River Darent in Kent, one of seven Roman villas along the valley. Built in the 1st century AD and enlarged over centuries, it was occupied by wealthy Romano-Britons and later by provincial governors. The house was destroyed by fire in the 4th or 5th century and lay buried until modern excavations.

The villa is worth the journey for its early Christian chapel and rare mosaics. In the 4th century a room became Britain’s earliest known Christian chapel, and the dining room still shows two fine mosaics from the same period. Marble busts found in the cellar may depict the governor Pertinax and his father-in-law.

Visitors walk through the remains of heated baths and a granary added in the 3rd century. The dining room’s mosaics show Jupiter as a bull abducting Europa and Bellerophon killing the Chimera. Outside, the Darent Valley landscape frames the site where archaeologists uncovered layers of Roman life.