The villa of Poppea

Excavations of Oplontis

Excavations of Oplontis The story Villa of Poppea Villa of Lucius Crassius Tertius Visiting hours and costs How to reach us

Among the Vesuvian archaeological sites, buried following the dramatic eruption of 79 AD, Oplontis is probably the one that offers the most significant monumental evidence of the Pompeian suburb.

The set of Roman buildings discovered, starting from the Bourbon era, in the modern city of Torre Annunziata, can be referred to a real peripheral urban center, subject to the administrative jurisdiction of Pompeii.

The story

The first excavations for the recovery of the area where the ancient Oplontis stood, a suburban settlement of nearby Pompeii, with various commercial activities and otium villas, buried during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79, were conducted for the first time during the 18th century by Francesco La Vega, who, digging a tunnel near the Conte di Sarno canal, brought to light part of a building that was called Villa A, later Villa di Poppea: the excavations were soon abandoned due to the unhealthy air that could be breathed in the area. In 1839, further excavations were carried out which brought to light the peristyle of the servants' quarters of Villa A, as well as a fountain: due to lack of funds, the excavation work was suspended in 1840 even if, recognizing the importance of the site, the remains found were purchased by the State.

An orderly excavation campaign was started again in 1964, again on the site of the Villa of Poppea, where the walls and roofs were raised and the floors and mosaics were restored. During the excavation of the foundations of a school, in 1974, a new building on two levels with a central peristyle came to light about 250 meters from the Villa: it is a rustic villa that was given the name of Villa of Lucius Crassus Tertius or Villa B. Near this villa, a stretch of road and several other small buildings were also found.

In 1997, the excavations were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Villa of Poppea

The villa of Poppea, initially called "villa A", was excavated for the first time in the 18th century with mixed success, while a more extensive and systematic recovery only took place starting from 1968: it is a villa of otium where, however, there was no lack of rooms dedicated to the production of wine and oil. The villa, dating back to the 1st century BC and expanded during the Claudian age, is attributed to Poppea Sabina due to the inscription painted on an amphora, addressed to a freedman of Nero's wife; at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius, the villa was uninhabited, perhaps undergoing restoration due to the Pompeii earthquake of 62 and all the objects were found set aside in some rooms. To date, the building has not yet been entirely excavated: the area brought to light corresponds to the eastern area, while the main entrance and the western area are yet to be recovered, also hindered by the presence of a modern road and a military building.

THE STRUCTURE

The plan of the villa is very complex and still not drawn up with certainty as it has not been fully explored and is conventionally divided into four parts: the north, south, west and east areas. In the northern part there is a large garden in which several marble sculptures have been found and it has been possible to reconstruct the casts of the roots of large trees, namely olive trees, even if until recently it was believed they could be either pomegranates or oleanders. In the southern area, however, there is another garden surrounded by a colonnade on three sides: laurel trees have been planted today, which are thought to have also been present at the time of the eruption.

In the western part there is the atrium with a compluvium that collected rainwater in the impluvium: the decorations of the room are in the second style and the trompe l'oeil technique is widely used to depict architectural settings and colonnades. The kitchen has a brick counter with a shelf above it used as a hob, while in the lower part small semicircular-shaped rooms probably contained firewood; a tub was probably used for draining liquids. The triclinium, in the area where the refectory was probably located, is adorned with a mosaic with rhomboid figures while in the rest of the room there are second style frescoes depicting golden columns decorated with climbing plants: among the decorations, a lovely still life depicting a basket with figs. Two rooms follow: one open to the sea with a single wall frescoed with representations of a sanctuary of Apollo, peacocks and theatrical masks, while in the second, larger room, there are a basket of fruit covered by a semi-transparent veil, a glass cup containing pomegranates, a cake placed on a stand and a theatrical mask. The villa also had a spa area: the calidarium has walls frescoed in the third style, where the main work is the myth of Hercules in the garden of the Hesperides; the frescoes of the tepidarium have a black or dark red background, as indicated by the fourth Pompeian style. In the western area there is also a cubicle where it was possible to obtain casts of the wooden door and the window and a small peristyle whose walls are decorated with grey and black bands and where there is the lararium decorated in the fourth style and with the original support beam placed above the niche, albeit carbonized.

In the eastern part of the villa there are two rooms placed in a mirror image of each other: in the first there are no paintings but only a marble baseboard and an incomplete floor with some marble tiles, a sign that the villa was being renovated; the second room has decorations in the fourth style. There follows a room without frescoes with walls in white, red, yellow and black reserved for guests, a small viridarium with decorations in the second style depicting plants, fountains and birds and two mirror images of each other: the first has a semicircular niche in which a sculpture was housed while the second is identical to the previous one with the presence of marble on the walls. Finally, in the villa there is a large swimming pool 61 meters long and 17 meters wide, paved in cocciopesto and adorned at the edges with marble statues, Roman copies of Greek originals: around it there was a lawn with plane trees, oleanders and lemon trees.

Villa of Lucius Crassius Tertius

The villa of Lucius Crassius Tertius dates back to the 2nd century BC and owes its name to a bronze seal found in the area of ??the building, which bears this very name: discovered in 1974 following the construction of a school, it is believed to be a rustic villa, both for the type of structure and for the finds discovered. The excavation of the villa has not yet been completed and cannot be visited.

The villa is built around a peristyle consisting of a portico with two orders of Doric columns in gray tuff: around the peristyle there are rooms used as warehouses, where furnishings, skins, ceramics, carbonized straw and a large quantity of pomegranates used for tanning leather were found inside. Furthermore, a stone stove with a pot containing conifer resins, used for the maintenance of the amphorae, was also found: in fact, around 400 amphorae were found in the villa at the time of the excavation and were most likely used for the processing of agricultural products and the transport of wine. The villa was inhabited at the time of the eruption; in fact, in the adjacent rooms, characterized by a vaulted ceiling, the bodies of 54 individuals were found and in their vicinity also jewels and coins, both in gold and silver.

The upper floor of the villa was instead the residential area of ??the domus: the rooms are decorated both in the fourth Pompeian style and in the second with the schematized technique, dating back to the Republican age. Also from the upper floor comes a small wooden box containing gold and silver jewelry, 170 coins, ointment jars, bone sticks and various jewels: among the jewels we can recognize earrings of the segmented sphere type, basket-shaped with set quartz or pendants with pearls, very long necklaces with gold and emerald beads, tubular bracelets decorated with gems and emeralds and rings with smooth gems or engraved with figures of animals or deities.

To the north of the villa there are some two-storey buildings: these are probably independent solutions from the villa, which directly overlook the street. Most likely these buildings were used as shops with a living space on the upper floor.

Visiting hours and costs

The archaeological area of ??Oplontis is open every day of the week (except Tuesday) from 9.00 to 19.00 with last entry at 18.00.

From April 1st to October 31st 2023 the summer timetable will be in force.
For more information visit the official website www.pompeiisites.org

COSTS
€5.00 (+ Villa Regina Boscoreale)

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