Lullingstane Chapel
Lullingstone Roman Villa was built during the Roman occupation of Britain, situated near the village of Eynsford in Kent, England. Constructed in the 1st century, perhaps around A.D. 80-90, the house was repeatedly expanded and occupied until it was destroyed by fire in the 5th century. The occupants were wealthy Romans or native Britons who had adopted Roman customs.
Some evidence found on site suggests that about A. D. 150, the villa was considerably enlarged and may have been used as the country retreat of the governors of the Roman province of Britannia. Two sculpted marble busts found in the cellar may be those of Pertinax, governor in 185-186, and his father-in-law, Publius Helvius Successus. In the 4th century, a room, probably already in religious use, was converted to a Christian chapel or house church, the earliest known in the British Isles.
In the Anglo-Saxon period, the ruins of a Roman temple-mausoleum on the site of the villa were incorporated into a Christian chapel (Lullingstane Chapel) that was extant at the time of the Norman Conquest, one of the earliest known chapels in the country.
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