Palastvilla Mauchenheim

Hidden underground today, a luxurious Roman palace villa once stretched north-west of Mauchenheim near Alzey. Selected rooms of the mighty palace complex with reconstructed interior and former residents are presented to you with the help of the app as an augmented reality experience.In four interior rooms of the palace villa, different characters of the Roman palace villa move towards you to give you an insight into everyday life in Rheinhessen in Roman times. The lord of the manor, a high Roman official in Mainz, can be found in the reception hall, the wife of the manager of the manor in the adjoining dining room, the cook in the kitchen of the main building and the slave from North Africa in an outbuilding that is also used as a barn.The manorial estate on the Selz existed from the 1st to the 5th century AD. The main building had an area of ​​around 2,000 square meters and housed around 35 rooms. It was in the Roman province of Germania superior (Upper Germania), about 30 km south-west of the provincial capital Mogontiacum (today: Mainz) on the Rhine. Just a few kilometers down the Selz was a local center in the market town of vicus Altiaiensium (today Alzey).The palace villa probably served its extremely wealthy owners as one of several centers of life, and it is also easy to imagine that the tenants of the surrounding farms once paid their rent here. Last but not least, as a villa rustica, the property was a farm geared towards surplus production, which produced grain, fruit and vegetables as well as various animal products.In the Middle Ages and modern times, the ruins were used as a source of building material, so that today there are no surface traces of this "castle" from Roman times. Archaeological-geophysical research by the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz was able to make the remains visible in the ground, and the results are now used as the basis for the virtual reconstruction. The ancient building stock (cellar, foundations, perhaps also mosaics) is still protected under the surface as a monument.A visit to the palace villa can be easily combined with neighboring archaeological monuments, such as the Celtic oppidum on the Donnersberg, the Alzey City Museum with an exhibition of numerous Roman monuments, the Vicus Eisenberg Roman Park or the Roman Hall in Bad Kreuznach. The 3D reconstruction of the Mauchenheim palace villa is part of the Rheinhessen Roman route.GPS and route guidance will take you to the selected stations on the grounds of the palace villa Mauchenheim. Concrete sleepers on the floor also mark the foundations and room layout of the palace villa.Arriving at the selected location, the virtual experience starts with the call-up of the reconstructed interior and exterior views of the palace villa as a 360-degree panorama image. The app recognizes your viewing angle based on the compass data of the smartphone or tablet you are using and when you open the 360 ​​degree panorama, it shows you the exact section of the panorama that matches the viewing angle. Changes in the viewing angle, rotating, tilting and tilting movements change the displayed image section in real time.Characters and actions are embedded in the 360 ​​degree panoramas as video sequences and can be triggered by tapping on "hotspot links". The app has offline capability and allows you to download all content to your smartphone or tablet in advance if you want to be independent of mobile internet access on site.With the help of the app, immerse yourself in Rhenish Hesse in Roman times and experience the palace villa and surrounding landscape as the former inhabitants of the palace complex saw them almost 2000 years ago.Access to the area of ​​the former palace villa Mauchenheim is free, as is the use of this app.