The Home of the Griffins, probably the most important luxurious houses on Rome’s Palatine hill to outlive from the Republican period, is opening to the general public for the primary time since its discovery greater than a century in the past with a livestreamed on-site video tour. Guests will keep within the atrium whereas a information outfitted with a video digital camera descends into the rooms under. The dwell video and audio shall be proven on a state-of-the-art micro-perforated mesh masking on the wall.
It was found in 1912 by archaeologist Giacomo Boni, director of the excavations of the Roman Discussion board. The home was named after one significantly notable ornamental accent in a semi-circular lunette atop a wall: two white stucco griffins dealing with one another towards a wealthy pink background. The imagery was of Greek mythological origin, telegraphing the proprietor’s training and wealth. The frescoes on the wall are a number of the most elaborate extant examples of late Republican ornament, that includes architectural illusions of colonnades, pilasters and marble inlays. The mosaic flooring are fields of black and white tiles with multi-colored panels of three dimensional shapes in marble tiles.
Constructed between the late 2nd and mid-1st century B.C., the domus is among the oldest Republican-era buildings on the Palatine. The highest flooring of it had been destroyed by new development throughout the Augustan period and at this time solely the bottom flooring with stays of the atrium and a hypogeum flooring under it have survived. Their vivid polychrome frescoed partitions and mosaic flooring are nonetheless remarkably intact, even after the huge foundations of the Flavian Palace constructed by Domitian intersected and disarticulated the unique construction. That’s as a result of the builders merely crammed the surviving areas with soil to behave as assist for the palace, preserving the high quality ornament of the domus.
Consequently, the stays of the Home of the Griffins supply a singular compendium of three centuries of structure, artwork, alteration and neglect. Nevertheless, the construction, broken in antiquity, had gaps and falling plaster on the partitions and mosaic flooring of various heights. The hypogeum flooring can solely be accessed by a dangerously steep staircase. The domus subsequently has fragile and sophisticated conservation wants that make it as difficult to open to guests as it’s fascinating to go to.
A complete scientific restoration and stabilization mission was accomplished in December 2024, and included injections of lime-based mortar to the partitions, restore of painted surfaces, reinforcement of wood buildings, laser cleansing to take away deposits on the frescoes and figurative stucco, detailed 3D photogrammetric surveys and scientific research of the ornament and construction. A brand new lighting and audio-visual system was set up to boost the dwell guided tour.
This modern strategy makes the domus accessible to everybody, with out subjecting the fragile surroundings to the stress of visitors. Excursions will run each Tuesday, beginning on March third, 2026. Tickets could be bought beginning February third from the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum’s web site.
