The east entrance A, viewed from the north

The villa at Achladia was excavated by Nicholaos Platon in the 1950s. The building covers an area of 270 square metres and the outside walls were built using large limestone blocks. The main entrance is to be found in the middle of the eastern side of the building. Another entrance is located in the north east corner of the site. The main building is known as House A as the remains of a smaller building to the south were also found. This building, called House B, is considered to be an annexe to House A rather than an independent building. A substantial wall was built between House A and its annexe.

Room B with the entrance area in front

The design of the building is similar to other Neopalatial buildings in the area. The main entrance led to a flagged corridor which was probably unroofed. To the south of the entrance area A, a double opening led to a large square room, (B). Lefteris Platon believes that another double opening (dithyron) existed in the north wall of the entrance area A, opening into room M. This was "missed" by the excavator and Lefteris Platon argues that one of two possibilities explain what happened. Either the polythyra were constructed in the first phase and one of them was walled up at a later date or alternatively the wall was opened up at a later phase in the life of the building but masonry from the earlier phase was retained at the point of the openings. J. Driessen has expressed the view that it became fashionable to install polythyra in already existing Neopalatial buildings and this second possibility would conform to that view. Room B certainly has a polythron in its west wall, as indicated by the three central supports.

Room B, showing the supports for the polythyra in the west wall

Room Γ has an L-shaped bench at its southern end, although only the section along the south wall still survives. West of this room and communicating with it and with each other are rooms Δ and E. These seem to have been store rooms and in room Δ a small compartment was found in which some of the restored vases of the house were kept.

In the north west corner of the building are three very badly preserved rooms, H, Θ and I. Room H may well have had a small light well in the western part of the room. If there was a second floor to this building, where was the staircase? Lefteris Platon argues that the long wall running parallel to the south wall of the building may have been the southern support of a staircase built outside the main building and running east to west. However, if this was the only staircase, the inhabitants would have had to leave the building and walk all the way around it to access the staircase. L. Platon therefore posits the possibility of another, internal staircase. He locates this as running west to east along the south wall of room M (with the polythyra filled in) and the absence of paving stones on the north part of the entrance A, could also be explained by the presence of stairs. It must be said, however, that this explanation of the two staircases has been met with scepticism by fellow archaeologists.

The bench on the south side of room Γ

On the basis of this hypothesis, the polythyra would have belonged to the earlier phase of the building and their replacement with solid walls would have taken place later in order to make it easier to get to the first floor of the building. Such changes in the architectural arrangements of the building, mirrored elsewhere, seem to be related to important changes in the function of various rooms. For example, large pithoi, storage jars, cooking vessels and stone tools were found in rooms B and M, Room Γ may well have been a dining room, while rooms Δ and E served as kitchens and for the storage of food and utensils. Room E contained about 100 vessels for domestic use which would originally have been placed on shelves. Very few luxury items were found at Achladia and only one object that could be related to religious use.

Rooms Δ (left) and E, which were used for the storage and preparation of food

The original excavator believed that the villa was built during MM III and destroyed during LM IA. L. Platon, however, argues that the existence of polythrya and light wells, assuming they belonged to the original plan of the building, mean that it would have been constructed during LM IA. The destruction of the villa can safely be dated to the end of LM IB. As with another villa nearby at Ayios Georgios, the Achladia building was an independent structure but not isolated. Nicholaos Platon partially excavated two buildings a short distance from House A. The site of House A overlooks the whole of the bay of Siteia (see photo below) and was therefore probably the dominant building in the area.

Room M with entrance A in the foreground	Site of possible external staircase
Room M from the south-west	The view to the north (Bay of Siteia) from Achladia