Domus Aurea Rome
Domus Aurea is closed down for the moment and we don’t know when it will open again. You can walk through the park and look at some of the ruins.
Domus Aurea Rome is situated between the Esquiline and on the slopes of the Palatine Hill. It was built under Emperor Nero. The palace was known as the Golden House of Nero. It was originally covered of gold leaf and embedded with gems.
Domus Aurea is basically a cave now. After Nero committed suicide the site was buried and other emperors replaced parts of the structure with their own buildings.
Emperor Nero had built the Domus Aurea after the great fire in A.D. 64. Some people say he allowed the fire to spread so he would have the land for this magnificent structure.
Nero had the Domus Aurea designed as a place for him to entertain. Some of the larger interior rooms have been excavated. If you use your imagination you can imagine the scale of the palace’s one-time splendor. It had 300 rooms without any places to sleep. They haven’t discovered kitchens or latrines. A lot of rooms covered in glaring polished white marble. There were many pools in the floors and fountains in the halls. Nero’s own palace remained on the Quirinal Hill. Back in the day there was a huge statue of Nero, 120 feet high, stood in the entrance hall. He also made an artificial lake to the grounds.
The architects Severus and Celer designed the massive beautiful decorated structure for Nero. Suetonius said after the Domus Aurea was finished Nero said, “Good, now I can at last begin to live like a human being.”
The tour that I took was in the Octagonal Room. The domed room had an oculus in the center to let in light. It would rotate during the day, following the movement of the sun. The building has some ancient beautiful frescoes. Amazing realistic Romans looking at you through windows on the walls and mythical beasts hanging among the vines and trees. There is also a magnificent fresco of Homer’s story of Achilles being sent to Skyros. The will tour bring you around the surviving terraces and fountains and into the atmospheric underground chambers of the Domus Aurea.
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Phone number: +39 06 0608
Address: Via della Domus Aurea, 1, 00184 Rome, Italy
