#Nero domus aurea full#
#Nero domus aurea windows#

Incredible frescoes still intact on these vaulted ceilings after being buried for thousands of years!

See the channels on the slanted wall to allow a waterfall to trickle down. A home fit for the Emperor, one he may never have actually slept in. The walls would have housed Nero’s many precious art works and collections he wanted to show-off to his guests. The room also features a waterfall wall, with drainage system below to ensure people’s feet didn’t get wet.

#Nero domus aurea windows#

Those doorways would be open, like windows to the outside view. The design was later copied to create the ceiling of the Pantheon. It is entirely made of concrete, a Roman invention that was seen in its day as an architectural marvel. Octagonal in design, with doorways leading into the centre, with a round oculus above the centre, where the bath of sunlight would have funnelled in to light up the room. The octagonal room is the most impressive and one of the most important structures in Roman architectural history. But there are dining spaces, so one must ask, where was the food prepared? Slaves most likely, but how far must they have walked to deliver the food? How did the food remain hot? Or cold? It is interesting that no bedrooms or cooking areas have yet been found – this palace seems to be built for pleasure alone, entertainment for the rich and famous. A mass of dining rooms and grottos for his guests to relax in and every room made the best use of natural light and vantage of the views of the manicured gardens outside. Nero liked to entertain in the most extravagant ways. The height of these rooms is gob smacking – and to think this is all underground!

#Nero domus aurea full#

The tour guide is an archaeologist and so passionate about the history and full of information it’s hard not to ooh and aah at every turn while you crane your neck looking up at the vastness of it all. The entrance to the Domus Aurea is up that hill, to the left (there are signs when you get this far), off Via Lubicana.ĭonned with a yellow plastic hard hat, non-compulsory as this is an excavation site, we are guided down many steps underground and through the palace (well, only a component of its entirety as only a small amount has been excavated, but that in itself is mind-blowingly huge). Past the Colosseum’s back entrance lies the Oppian Hill ( Colle Oppio), one of the seven hills of Rome. As it was only re-opened to the public last year there’s no signage till you are actually almost at the site, and because it’s all underground you can’t see any structure from above to guide you. For such a huge place, the site is not easy to find. I reserved my tickets a few months in advance to be sure. Numbers are limited, so tickets need to be reserved ahead of time. Tickets are available through the Coop Culture site (the official and least expensive site for most of Rome’s places of interest). The Domus Aurea is an excavation site, as archaeologists are still working to find all of its secrets, however it is open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays only. The entrance to the Domus Aurea, these walls are actually part of the baths of Trajan. You could tell he liked to indulge, that thick wobbly neck and chubby cheeks says it all. This was opulence taken to an extreme level, and it’s been hiding under Rome since 68AD. This was a palace more over-the-top than anything you could imagine. This was even more extravagant than any Emperor had seen. Walls covered in gemstones, ivory and pure gold, incredible water features, intricate artworks, even a spinning dome that showered perfumed rose petals from above. Poor Nero, he must have been living in squalor before he could move into his 300 room abode set on 200 hectares of manicured gardens, fountains, a huge man-made lake as big as the Colosseum (actually the Colosseum sits on top of where the lake was today) and every mod-con you could ask for in 65AD. That is apparently what Emperor Nero had to say when his Golden Palace, Domus Aurea, was finally built. “Now I can begin to live as a human being.”