The villa S. Marco was explored between 1750 and 1754 and began to be excavated from the 1950s onwards. This excavation campaign made a systematic investigation of the so-called “entrance quarter” and the immediate vicinity, that is the structures linking the residential complex to the town of Stabiae.

The excavations demonstrated that the drawing made by Weber in the Bourbon period was substantially correct, confirming the presence of a rectangular portico, surrounded by rooms and with an entrance onto the road. The investigation, which also aimed towards the creation of a new entrance for the public, also looked at the part of the road onto which the villa faced. This road proceeding to the west sloped downwards until it reached a flight of stairs, surmounted by a vault, which linked the upper part of the town to the plateau below. The presence of several rooms was documented, perhaps also belonging to the villa, above the vault and beyond the wall delimiting the road to the north.

Thus investigations concentrated on the peristyle area, which was almost entirely occupied by a layer of earth, ash, lapilli and bricks that was clearly the result of earlier excavations.
An area was brought to light with a rectangular central zone designed as an open space. It was open to the north and bordered along the sides by a wall circa 1 m high and a channel which drained rain water into a pipe. The internal space of the peristyle was probably a garden, with fruit trees in the centre, as attested by the ongoing paleo-botanical analyses. The supports for the portico roof were fixed to the inner face of the wall. These were constituted on the south, north and east sides by opus vittatum pillars, on the west by three columns and two semi-columns built of brick. Ten small rectangular rooms opened off the eastern side of the portico, small rooms or deposits for storing foodstuffs. On the upper floor was another series of rooms reached by a staircase, situated in the north-eastern corner of the east portico, coeval with the upper rooms. To the east of the entrance was a small structure in opus craticium abutting the perimeter wall of the villa, which presented a cavity, perhaps for housing a bed, in its northern perimeter wall.

Part of the road in front was also excavated. This had beaten surface and a dam which prevented rainwater from entering the buildings by channelling the water into a lateral drain. These walls were faced with white plaster with a dado of opus signinum circa 150 cm high. Numerous graffiti and charcoal drawings were identified on their surface, including many representations of boats and inscriptions of a licentious nature. Thus it may be suggested that the entire area north of the tablinium (59) was used by the slaves: the custodian’s lodgings were by the entrance, the rooms along the eastern side of the portico were used to store foodstuffs, whilst the slave’s quarters were situated on the upper floor where they could also make use of the two latrines situated on the western side. This hypothesis is supported by the almost complete lack of wall painting and the beaten earth floors.