(courtyard house) [MC]
A type of Roman villa found in many parts of the empire distinguished by its characteristic ground plan in which there is a central rectangular courtyard entered by a front gateway, with ranges of rooms on at least one side and sometimes on all four sides. The sides not formed by ranges of rooms are marked by a wall. The courtyard itself can be paved or, more often, planted as a small garden. Some courtyard villas developed out of earlier winged corridor villa through the addition of extra ranges. In general, courtyard villas were amongst the grandest villas and were presumably occupied by the more wealthy landowners.
