Known as the "villa of freedom Peticia”, la villa di Staranzano era una delle residenze a carattere abitativo e produttivo del territorio che in antico era amministrato da Aquileia. Essa era posta lungo la strada romana che da Aquileia portava a Tergeste (Trieste) e in vicinanza di un corso d’acqua oggi scomparso.
Like other Roman-era "ville rustiches," the villa gravitated to a landed estate (fundus) where various economic activities were carried out, from which the owner and his family derived livelihood and products to market. These complexes consisted of a residential part (pars urbana) and from a purely productive one (pars rustica).
The villa, in which the cult to a female deity, the Bona Dea, is attested, was inhabited from the middle of the 1st century B.C. to the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. It underwent renovations during its lifetime that can be recognized by the superimposition of different floor coveringsand the use of different building materials in the masonry over the centuries. Excavations conducted in 1955 revealed only a small portion of the complex, which must have been much larger.
