Located a few meters before the entrance to the Toscolano Paper Mill, the Roman villa of the Nonii Arrii constitutes one of the most important residential buildings present in Roman times on the shores of Lake Garda.
The complex extended a short distance from the shore of the lake, toward which it faced with its main elevation. Its general layout, size, and architectural and decorative features place it in the group of lake villas existing on the shores of Benacus, the best-known examples of which are the villas of Sirmione, (“Grotte di Catullo”) and Desenzano del Garda.
The earliest archaeological finds in the area date back to the 15th and 16th centuries; extensive excavations, later re-interred, were carried out in the late 19th century. The villa probably belonged to the Nonii, one of the most important and influential Brescian families, who had economic interests and extensive properties in the lake area and in the nearby hills and mountains. Thanks to an inscription probably from the villa area, this has been attributed to Marcus Nonius Macrinus, consul in 154, proconsul of Asia in 170-171, legatus and comes of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It is therefore, among the Garda villas, the only case in which it has been possible to identify the owner with little margin of doubt, at least in the 2nd-century AD phase, although the building even later may have remained the property of the rich and powerful Brescian family.
