NEW EXCAVATIONS AT VILLA POPPEA TO OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
From 12 February every Thursday from 10.30 am to 12.00 pm
An opportunity to get a first-hand view of the excavations and new finds
Press preview 12 February 10.00 am
Theatre masks, figures of brightly coloured peacocks preserved intact beneath layers of ash and lapilli, imprints of trees and elegant new rooms are emerging from the excavations designed to reveal more of Villa Poppea. The sumptuous residence, thought to have belonged to the second wife of Nero at the site of Oplontis at Torre Annunziata, can be admired during the ongoing excavation work.
From 12 February each Thursday, from 10.30 am to 12.00 pm, visitors with a standard ticket for the Villa – with a maximum number of 10 people at a time - can enter some areas of the excavation accompanied by the Park staff. It is a unique chance to get a first-hand view of the activities currently underway during the excavations and the restoration of the exceptional frescoes of the Hall of the Mask and the Peacock, one of the most elegant rooms in the villa, decorated in the Second Style.
The excavations, designed to clarify aspects of the western sector of the villa which runs along the urban part of Via dei Sepolcri and to solve problems related to the state of preservation, represent an important opportunity to enhance the archaeological and urban context. The investigations will make it possible to establish a link with the adjoining Bourbon gunpowder factory – the Spolettificio Borbonico - where museum display spaces, storerooms and additional facilities will be created over the next few years.
The most important discoveries to come to light include the complete figure of a peahen, the pendant of the peacock found on the southern part of the same wall, and several fragments depicting a theatre mask related to a character from the Atellan Farce (comedy), in contrast to the other masks in the room linked to the realm of tragedy.
Thanks to the technique of making plaster casts, the excavation has also brought to light imprints of the trees that once adorned the garden, in their original position and inserted within a precise ornamental layout, which duplicated the colonnade of the southern portico, echoing gardens recorded in other domus in Pompeii and at the site of Oplontis itself.
The excavations have also led to the identification of four new rooms which can be added to the 99 ones already known, including an apsidal room that probably formed part of a bathing complex.
Alongside the excavations, restoration work is also being carried out on the decoration of two small precious rooms, originally designed for rest, known as cubicula, which look onto the south-west area of the Villa, extremely close to the other excavation site. One striking feature is the elaborate decoration, consisting of stuccoes, frescoed walls, painted vaults and mosaic floors of extraordinary beauty, which reveals, like the other rooms in the Villa, the exquisite technical skills displayed by the artisans of the period, as well as the varied palette of paints employed, including Egyptian blue.
VISITORS CAN JOIN TOURS WITH A STANDARD TICKET FOR THE VILLA
INFO
Tours each Thursday from 10.30 am to 12.00 pm - in Italian
Maximum group size: 10 people
Duration of tour:15 minutes
Booking not required
Meeting point: Atrio Grande (large atrium)
For press passes: pompei.ufficiostampa@cultura.gov.it
