The building, classified as a villa maritima, is characterized by its sophisticated architecture with two peristyles – one hexagonal and the other square-shaped.

The villa contained well-preserved geometrically shaped polychrome mosaics (now in the museum of Portimão) and is believed to date from the 4th century AD.

The building's Mediterranean-style architecture included an attached portico with a view of the lagoon and the sea and exposed inhabitants to the mild climate.

In 1938 the archaeologist José Formosinho Sanches found the remains of the pars rustica including large basins which were used to process offshore seafood twenty meters south of the villa.

Fish, shellfish, crabs, and once abundant birds sustained high human populations and in the 4th century allowed large scale commercial exploitation.

This allows conclusions to be drawn on the marketing of maritime resources and underpins the classification as villa maritima.