Echoes of Antiquity

Ancient Surfaces treated this garden as a sequence of rooms, each one turning on a piece of antique stone. A limestone wall fountain spills from a sculpted lion mask into a tiered channel and a long rectangular basin set flush into the paving, so the sound of water carries the length of the walk. A sunken stairway of blocks chiseled by hand drops into the lawn beneath an olive tree, closer to a pastoral Roman path or a medieval European terrace than to anything built recently. A carved marble frieze of a Bacchic procession, with nymphs, satyrs and heroes worked in relief, hangs on a wall softened by ivy and roses. In the courtyard the risers, balusters, flooring, door frames, columns and arch bases were coordinated in a single golden limestone so the whole space reads as one building rather than a collection of details. Under the loggia, a cylindrical fountain lifts a carved bowl on a stone pedestal, drawing on the courtyard fountains of the Moorish and Mediterranean south. A living memory of civilizations past, built for today.