Roman villa, Archaeological site with Roman villa in Wavre, Belgium

The Roman villa at Basse-Wavre, in Wavre, was a 150-metre-long complex with fifty rooms, nine heated by hypocaust. A 110-metre colonnade ran along the south-east facade, and a 90-square-metre reception hall was decorated with marble from Asia Minor, Egypt and Albania. The site lies largely under the fields of L'Hosté farm, beside Basse-Wavre railway halt.

The villa was built between the 1st and 3rd centuries on a clearing in the Silva Carbonaria, the Kolenwoud, beside the Dijle river downstream of Wavre's centre. It was excavated in 1864 and 1904. A fire, probably between 254 and 276 and blamed on invading Germanic groups, destroyed it; in the early Middle Ages a small building was raised from its rubble.

The villa's name lives on in Basse-Wavre, the lower town of Wavre downstream of the Dijle. Archaeologists call it a villa rustica, a residential estate rather than a working farm, possibly built by a retired dignitary near the Silva Carbonaria forest. A small building of reused villa rubble went up in the early Middle Ages, and in the 11th century Henry III, Count of Leuven, founded Basse-Wavre Priory here, dependent on the Benedictines of Affligem.

The Roman remains lie largely under the farmland of L'Hosté farm, beside the Basse-Wavre railway stop, downstream of Wavre centre on the Dijle. The site has been protected heritage since 1921, but the owners refuse any reopening of the 1904 excavation dossier, fearing expropriation, so there is no visitor access to the villa itself.

The villa was dug out in 1864 and 1904, but the site was backfilled during the First World War, both to guard against theft and to give farmers arable land. The owners still refuse to reopen the 1904 excavation dossier, fearing expropriation, so most of the 300-hectare site lies under farmland beside the Basse-Wavre railway halt.