Domus Aurea

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Today's entrance to Nero's Golden House on Via della Domus Aurea
Domus aurea 06.jpg
Domus aurea 04.jpg
The Domus Aurea lies under the ruins of the Trajan Baths and the surrounding park.

The Domus Aurea ( Latin for the Golden House ) was a huge palace in Rome , which the Roman Emperor Nero had built on the site of an earlier palace, the Domus Transitoria , after the city ​​was burned (64 AD) . It was more like an estate than a palace; because the entire facility covered approx. 80 ha .

The walls were painted by the Roman painter Fabullus . The ceiling painting was more important than the wall painting . Small rooms and corridors are fully painted, otherwise the walls are covered with marble slabs or gilded. Figures are rather poorly preserved. The paintings fall into the 4th style / fantasy style of Roman wall painting. The dining room is the first domed building with an octagon floor plan and the earliest in palace architecture.

Suetonius on the Domus Aurea

Suetonius describes the palace in his biography of Nero:

“In the entrance hall of the house there was a 120-foot-high colossal statue with the portrait of Nero. The whole complex was so large that it included three porticoes a mile long and an artificial lake that was almost a sea, surrounded by houses the size of cities. There were also villas with fields, vineyards and pastures, forests full of wild and tame animals of all kinds. Some parts of the house were completely gilded and decorated with gems and shells. The dining rooms had moveable ivory ceilings through which flowers could be thrown and perfume sprinkled. The most important of them was circular and constantly moved day and night like the sky. The baths were fed with sea and sulphurous water. When Nero inaugurated the house after the construction work was completed, he was very satisfied and said that he was finally living in a house that was worthy of a person. "

- Suetonius, Nero, 31

In line with the lines by Suetonius, mocking verses were circulating in Rome at the time of Nero, calling on the Romans to emigrate to the nearby Veii , since Rome had become a single house, if Veii was not part of it: Roma domus fiet: Veios migrate Quirites - si non et veios occupat ista domus.

Location and further use

The Domus Aurea was to become Nero's new palace, after the previous building, the Domus Transitoria , which had begun in Nero's first years in government, was destroyed in the city fire of 64 before completion.

The area of ​​the Domus Aurea comprised around 100 hectares of large parts of the Roman hills: the vestibule was built on the Palatine Hill , the remaining parts of the Villa des Maecenas were incorporated on the Esquiline and the temple of Claudius was transformed into one on the Caelius Nymphaeum and included in the overall complex. A lake was created in the central valley in between, where the Colosseum now stands. The Romans did not skimp on their ruler's megalomania.

The subsequent emperors returned parts of the Domus Aurea to the Roman people. Vespasian and Titus build the Amphitheater Flavium (Coliseum). In the year 80 the Titus Baths were completed. After the fire of the Domus Aurea in 104, construction began on the Trajan Baths, which opened in 109 . The Palatine remained what it was since the time of Emperor Augustus , palace area.

Today only a small remnant of the once huge complex is preserved on the Oppius , a hill on the edge of the Esquiline. Because of its architecture as well as its stucco and wall painting decoration, it is of great importance in terms of art history, but it gives a completely different impression than the original building. Because while this corresponded to the type of a spacious panoramic villa, today's remains have become windowless basement rooms because the area was filled in after Nero to serve as a substructure for the Titus and Trajan baths.

During their work, the restorers also discovered an underground passage that leads to the nearby Colosseum. According to newspaper reports, the experts are considering expanding this tunnel and using it as a new exit to the Domus Aurea.

Nero had the ceilings and the upper halves of the walls painted. Around 30,000 m² of these frescoes still exist today, 1200 of which have been restored. The subjects of the picture are mythological scenes, a still life with ham, bread and fish, landscapes and decorative grotesques .

Signatures of famous Renaissance painters are inscribed in some places on the wall. The Imperial Palace had just been rediscovered at the time; the artists had to abseil through openings in the ceiling in order to copy frescoes there. What they saw they used for their own work - for example for the archways of the Vatican, which were built under Raphael's supervision.

Current situation

After extensive, decades-long restoration work, parts of the building had only been made accessible to the public again in 1999, it had to be closed again at the end of 2005 after severe damage had been found due to moisture penetrating the structure from the ground. After another year of renovation work, the house was reopened at the end of January 2007. On the morning of March 30, 2010, a vault from the time of Trajan collapsed after persistent rainfall, whereupon the Domus Aurea was closed to visitors again. In spring 2012, a discussion took place between municipal and state authorities as to the form in which a restoration and subsequent presentation to the public could take place. During an extensive restoration, the parts of the building are to be stabilized, for which part of the park above must also be removed.

Since October 26, 2014, some rooms can be visited during special weekend tours. The restoration work was also presented. At a press conference, Minister of Culture Franceschini announced that the restoration would last until 2018. However, there is still a financing requirement of 31 million euros. Since February 2017 the building has been open to the public again on weekends and can be visited as part of a guided tour.

Domed structure

One of the dining rooms of the Domus Aurea is the first domed structure to be erected over an octagonal floor plan and the earliest in palace architecture. The monastery vault had an incircle diameter of 13.48 m and was broken through by a 5.99 m wide opaion . The dome was made of opus caementitium .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jürgen Rasch: The dome in Roman architecture. Development, shaping, construction , in: Architectura , Vol. 15 (1985), pp. 117-139 (118f., 122, 136)
  2. ^ Suetonius, Nero 39.2.
  3. ^ Staccioli: Guida. P. 93.
  4. ^ Staccioli: Guida. P. 92 f.
  5. ^ Filippo Coarelli : Rome. An archaeological guide . Zabern, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-8053-2685-8 , pp. 220-221.
  6. ↑ Berthold Seewald: Emperor Nero's Golden House is ready. Die Welt , January 30, 2007, accessed March 24, 2012 .
  7. ↑ Financial Times Deutschland, March 30, 2010, accessed on June 14, 2010 ( Memento of April 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ Corriere della Sera, March 30, 2010, accessed June 14, 2010
  9. ↑ Thomas Migge: Collapse in the "golden house" of Nero in Rome. Deutschlandradio , April 7, 2010, accessed on March 24, 2012 .
  10. ^ Carlo Alberto Bucci and Laura Larcan: Domus Aurea, scontro sul restauro. La Repubblica , December 4, 2011, accessed March 24, 2012 (Italian).
  11. ↑ Federico Gurgone: The Domus Aurea Project. In: National Geographic . February 1, 2015, accessed May 7, 2018 .
  12. ^ Claudius Ziehr: Domus Aurea, to be visited again. October 26, 2014, accessed October 26, 2014 (German).
  13. ↑ Ancient Rome: Nero's golden palace is now open again - WELT. Retrieved July 14, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Domus Aurea - visit at domus aurea's archaeological restoration site with virtual reality - Roma - Monuments. Retrieved July 14, 2017 (English).

literature

Web links

Commons : Domus aurea  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 29 ″  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 43 ″  E