The dolphin mosaic
A near-complete coloured marine floor in one of the courts.
Elisa Triolo — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ввласенко — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Elisa Triolo — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Elisa Triolo — CC BY-SA 2.0
**A grand Roman house rebuilt and roofed, so you walk through it as it was** — minutes from the Kos agora. It is a **3rd-century Roman villa** of some **thirty-six rooms** and three colonnaded inner courtyards, built for a very wealthy family. It came to light after the **1933 earthquake**, and the **Italians then rebuilt its walls and roof** on the basis of what was found. ⚠ Which means what you see is **a partial modern reconstruction** rather than a standing original building — **but it follows the original plan**, and the floors and mosaics are original and in place. ✅ Its finest feature is the **mosaics**: coloured floors of marine scenes, dolphins, panthers and fish, some almost complete. ✅ And the visit is **roofed and shaded** — rare on a hot island.
A near-complete coloured marine floor in one of the courts.
Three inner courtyards showing how a Roman house was arranged.
A coloured animal scene, among the house's best known.
Kos Town, 85300 Kos, Greece
Archaeological Museum of Kos**A museum in an Italian building on Kos's central square** — small and well kep5 minutes walk4.6
Ancient Agora of Kos**A complete archaeological site in the middle of a modern town, free and always5 minutes walk4.2
Nerantzia CastleA medieval castle at the harbour entrance of Kos town, built by the Knights of S9 minutes walk4.1**Not if you know what you are looking at — the issue is honesty rather than complete authenticity.** ✅ **What is original**: **the plan** (the positions of rooms, courts and passages as excavated), **the floors**, and **the mosaics** — which is the real archaeological value. ✅ **What is modern**: **the raised walls, the roofs and the re-erected columns** — built by the Italians in the 1930s over the discovered foundations. ⚠ **The legitimate criticism**: reconstruction **assumes** how the building looked and can be wrong; and it **mixes original with modern** to an untrained eye. That criticism is also levelled at **Evans's reconstruction at Knossos**, the most famous case of the kind. ✅ **What you gain in exchange**: **the experience of space**. Walking a **roofed portico around a courtyard** and understanding how light entered and how rooms connected — **which knee-high foundations cannot give you**, however authentic. ✅ **So the rule**: go knowing — and the reconstruction becomes **a tool for understanding** rather than a deception.