Roman Villa in Skala, Cephalonia: A masterpiece of mosaic art

This is where the ruins of a 2nd-century AD villa were unearthed in 1957, featuring the most important collection of mosaics in Cephalonia. Out of the six surviving rooms, most feature mosaic floors. One of them even preserves the symbolic depiction of Envy, anthropomorphized as a young man being devoured by wild beasts. A metrical inscription names the mosaicist Krateros as the artist, while the scene is framed by geometric motifs.

The villa was most likely destroyed in a fire in the 4th century AD and was partly replaced by an Early Christian church, which survived until the 9th-10th century before meeting its demise – also by fire. A chapel dedicated to Saint Athanasios was constructed over its ruins in the Late Byzantine period.