Villa of Oplontis

Garden front of the Villa von Oplontis with a view into the atrium.

Plan of the Oplontis villa

During excavations in Oplontis , an ancient site on the site of today's Torre Annunziata , archaeologists came across the villa of a noble Roman family in 1964 , which had been buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79. When the building was uncovered, one found on an amphora the inscription “Secundo Poppaeae”, which refers to a freed person of the Poppaea, and a jug with the seal “L. Arriani (A) mphionis ”, a brickyard owned by the Poppaea. Therefore, there were suspicions that Poppaea Sabina (* approx. 30/32 AD; † 65 AD), Nero's second wife , or her family were the owners of the property. A statue was found later that supposedly bears the features of the Poppaea. In many publications, especially in Italy, the property is called Villa Poppaea , which at least serves to distinguish it from the villa of Lucius Crassius Tertius , also uncovered in Torre Annunziata .

The villa was built around the middle of the 1st century BC. Built in BC, which can be deduced from the magnificent wall paintings from the heyday of the second style (architectural style), which are reminiscent of those of the Mystery Villa and the Villa Boscoreale , and from the masonry made of opus incertum and opus quasi reticulatum . It is the most significant and (with more than 3000 m² covered area!) Largest example of suburban villas that have been found in the region around Herculaneum , Pompeii and Stabiae .

The building complex consists of a large number of rooms and you enter it from the garden side, as the villa has not yet been fully exposed. The equipment included a large swimming pool as well as a wine press . In addition to the owners' numerous living rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms, there were also extensive servant areas including accommodation for them and spacious outdoor areas with sheltered and covered terraces, an orchard and a row of plane trees with 100 trees.

The villa was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List on December 4, 1997 with Pompeii and Herculaneum .