Where Neros Wife Lived

by amalficoasting.org

The 1st century BC imperial

Villa Poppaea, or Villa Oplontis,
just three miles from Pompeii,
was apparently owned by the
Emperor Nero, and believed to
have been used by his second
wife, Poppaea Sabina, as her
main residence when she was
not in Rome.
The rst pyroclastic surge, the
same one that killed the residents of Herculanem, also engulfed Oplontis. But no human
remains have been found here. It
is therefore assumed that the
residents had ed the eruption
of Mt. Vesuvius, or that the villa
was uninhabited at that time
(being devoid of furniture and
with building material stored in
several rooms).
The villa was rst discovered
in the eighteenth century during
the construction of the Sarno
Canal, which cut through the
central hall of the villa.
Between 1839 and 1840 explo-

rations of the site were undertaken by Bourbon excavators

who removed several paintings
from the villa.
The excavators used a tunneling technique that was also employed at Herculaneum, and
uncovered part of the peristyle
and garden area. Excavations
continued again from 1964 until
the mid-1980s, at which point
the site was excavated to its current level.
It was during this nal round
of excavations that the massive
swimming pool was unearthed.
The villas southernmost portions have been left unexcavated
because of the physical limitations of the complex, which has
been compromised by its position beneath the modern city of
Torre Annunziata and the construction of the Sarno Canal.
Villa Oplontis is momentous
for its sheer size, as well as outdoor garden areas, pergolas and
porticos. More than one hundred rooms have thus far been

Villa Oplontis

large swimming pool. These improvements were on going at

the time of Vesuvius's eruption
The oldest part of the house
centers round the Atrium (#1 on
the map) and dates from the
middle of 1st century B.C.
The Tuscan style atrium,
which would have been entered
from the south, has a central impluvium. Much of the atrium's
original oor has survived. It
consisted of white mosaic embellished with a polychrome
border.
The walls are richly decorated
in the second style with illusionary architecture and views of
distant landscapes glimpsed behind doorways and through the

Villa Oplontis

Villa Oplontis

Villa Oplontis

excavated. The rooms are themselves renowned for their sumptuous frescoes with give
stunning decorative details that
recount the good life in ancient
times.
According to scholars Villa
Poppaea was a model on which
many of the more modest city
houses of ancient Pompeii and
Herculaneum were based.
The villa was built in two
main phases. The oldest part of
the house centers round the
atrium and dates from the 1st
century B.C. The house was later
extended to the east. This new
wing housed a number of reception and service rooms set in extensive gardens overlooking a

1 Atrium
2 Kitchen
3 Caldarium
4 Tepidarium
5 Hall
6 Triclium
7 Cubiculim
8 Living Room
9 Portico
10 Peristyle
11 Corridot
12 Living Room
13 Living Room
14 Pool
15 Ospitalia
16 Viridarium
17 Living Room
18 Living Room
19 Living Room
20 Corridor
21 Latrines
22 Peristyle
23 Lararium
24 Living Room
25 Viridarium

Fresco depicting a mythological scene

tures a black border round the

walls and includes inserts of colored marbles. The room is nely
decorated in the second style.
The east wall displays perspective views of colonnades either side of a central painting of
the sanctuary at Delphi depicting the traditional theme of a
tripod placed atop a column.
The fresco includes some ne
detail such as the theatre mask
and peacock captured in the
photo opposite.
The north side of the oecus
opens onto a small tetrastyle
atrium that serviced the villa's
private baths. On the east side of
the atrium, there were the Tepidarium (#4) and the Caldarium
(#3). They were both heated by
means of warm air circulating
under the oor, but the hotter
caldarium had additional heat

supplied through hollow terracotta slabs incorporated into the

walls.
Both rooms were decorated
in the second style in reds, yellows and black with stylized details and panels with landscapes.
Attention to realistic perspective
is abandoned in favor of atness
and elongated architectural
forms.
On the wall of the niche on
the east side of the caldarium is
a large fresco of the mythological scene depicting Hercules in
the Garden of the Hesperides.
The fresco was painted in the
"Third Style" (also called the Ornate Style) dating to ca. 25 B.C.40 A.D.
Along the upper frieze are a
series of ne miniature landscapes.
Two porticoes link the rooms

Caldarium, Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides

Villa Oplontis

Villa Oplontis
5

columns of porticoes. A detail

from the fresco on the east wall
is pictured left.
The atrium has no rooms o
either its east or west sides, but
leads directly to a second hall,
which acts as the hub for the
original building.
On the north side of this hall
is a Viridarium (#25), an enclosed garden, the walls of
which are decorated with red
and black panels containing
garden scenes with images of
plants and birds along the
lower frieze.
On the north side of this is a
large reception room with little
remaining decoration. A door
Atrium
o the south west side of this
hall leads past the Kitchen (#2)
on the right to the Triclinium ors of the second style frescoes
(#6). The white mosaic oor of which decorate the walls.
this room osets the vibrant colThe frescoes' trompe l'oeil
colonnades and architectural
features serve as frames for motifs such as peacocks, theatrical
masks and emblems of the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi.
Couches originally lined the
three walls, with a central table
for the diners.
Immediately to the west of
the triclinium is a large Oecus
(#5). One of the nest rooms in
the villa, it commanded spectacular views over the Bay of Naples
to the south.
The white mosaic oor fea-

the north east corner, the villa's

Latrines (#21).
O the north east corner of
the peristyle a long, high Corridor (#20) leads to the newer east
wing set in gardens overlooking
the Piscina (#14), or swimming
pool.
In the center of the wing
overlooking the swimming pool
is a large hall, the walls of which
were veneered with colored
marbles surmounted by a white
upper zone.
On either side are reception
rooms (two to the north and one
to the south). They appear to be
cubicula, perhaps for guests to
the villa. Connected to each
room was a small Viridarium
(#16), painted to evoke a garden
and its statuary.

Villa Oplontis

Villa Oplontis
7

on the southern side of the villa.

The porticoes have white mosaic oors with bands of black.
The walls are decorated in the
fourth style with red panels
above a lower black frieze. The
upper zone is decorated with
garlands and architectural motifs on a white ground.
In the north east corner of the
western portico is a richly decorated cubiculum. The walls and
ceiling a nely decorated in the
second style with a stuccoed
arch over the bed recess.
An equally richly decorated
room can be found in the north
west corner of the eastern portico. This room, an oecus, is decorated in the second style with
themes based around perspective views of theatrical backdrops.
On the north wall the detail
includes a basket of fruit covered
by a veil and, on the cornice, a
glass bowl with pomegranates.
The south wall includes images of a cluster of grapes, a
pheasant and a cake placed upon
a tray.
A door in the south east corner of hall leads past the Lararium (#23 - see below) on the left
to an internal court, colonnaded
on all four sides.
The Peristyle (#22) has small
columns joined to a low wall
decorated with plants and birds
on a red ground.
In the central garden is a
fountain sim
ilarly decorated. The rooms
o the four sides of this peristyle
appear to be mostly service
rooms including cubicula for use
by the domestic servants and in

VILLA OPLONTIS
Entrance
Via dei Sepolcri, Torre Annunziata (Naples)
Visiting hours
1st April 31st October:
daily from 8.30 am to 7.30 pm
(admission closes at 6 pm); 1st
November 31st March: daily
from 8.30 am to 5 pm (admission
closes at 3.30 pm)
How to get there
By train:
Circumvesuviana Naples-Sorrento (Torre Annunziata Stop)
Circumvesuviana
NaplesPoggiomarino (Torre Annunziata Stop)
By car:
A3 Naples-Salerno Motorway
(Torre Annunziata Sud Exit)

Fresco