Casa dell'Atrio a Mosaico
Province
Location
Location Description
An ancient Roman town of Campania destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D.79. Named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
Insula
IV
House
1-2
Garden
Casa dell'Atrio a Mosaico
Keywords
Garden Description
541.IV.1-2 A windowed portico surrounded this garden (a) on the north, south and west. The east side was bordered by a narrow corridor which Maiuri proposed had glass in woodenframes set on the outside edge of the low wall. This wall had a planting space 0.16 m. wide in the top next to where the windows were set, creating a greenhouse environment. This luxurious house had an exedra(b) opening onto the center of the corridor and looking into the garden, which was slightly lower. On the oppositeside,the walls, columns, and the door posts were decorated with paintingsof shrubs, grapevines, ivy andoleander in flower as a continuation of the garden proper. A gutter circled the perimeter of the garden except by the entrance on the south, which was directly across from the grand triclinium-oecus(c). A rectangular marble-edged pool in the center of the garden had a water jet which could be viewed from either the exedra or the triclinium. The excavations in this garden in 1929-1930 uncovered a spherical white marble sundial. The triclinium-oecus opened to the south onto a long covered portico with an open terrace (d) beyond that looking out over the Bay. Potted plants most likely were placed here.
Plans
Places
Dates
unspecified
Excavation Date
1929-1930
Bibliography
- Gibbs, Greek and Roman sundials, p. 148, no 1031G (worldcat)
- Maiuri, Herculaneum, pp. 28-30 (worldcat)
- Maiuri, Ercolano, pp. 290-293, 295, 298, 300 and fig. 223 (plan) on p. 280.(worldcat)