Explore Domus Aurea | Architechtural Highlights, History and the Rediscovery of the Ancient Roman Ruins

West Wing

The West Wing is the best-conserved part of the entire Domus Aurea complex that reflects the luxury of this pleasure palace. This structure has two floors and at least 140 rooms with ceilings as high as 11 meters. The main entrance is through the Sacra, from the Forum and is surrounded by scenery of vast gardens spanning over 125 acres and extending into parklands and lakes. 

The ground floor was dedicated mainly to banquet halls adorned with wall paintings. This one courtyard, in the West Wing, had not less than 50 banquet rooms. 

Another pentagonal courtyard with 15 separate rooms was decorated with glass mosaics. One of these 15 rooms, is the ‘Golden Vault’ that had gilded ceilings, panels of marble and a striking picture of Zeus abducting Ganymede, from Greek mythology. 

The Domus Aurea octagonal room has a concrete dome which was originally covered with glass mosaics. This dome and the use of concrete for vaulting in buildings went on to become common in Roman architecture. 

Wall paintings (Frescoes)

Famulus, a Roman painter, spectacularly decorated Nero’s Golden House. He was known as the ‘floridly extravagant artist’. The Golden House is considered a ‘prison’ that contained all of his fabulous productions. The walls and ceilings of Domus Aurea were filled with frescoes. It is a mural painting technique that involves using water-based paint on wet plaster which in turn makes the painting an integral part of it. There are depictions of horses with leaflike legs and unholy hybrids of animals and humans prowling over unusual architectural features, painted in a vivid spectrum of ancient Technicolour. 

Most parts of Nero’s Golden House remained buried and unknown until the Rennaisance. It was only then passionate artists like Pinturicchio, Giulio Romano, Ghirlandaio and Raffaello went underground to recreate the decorative motifs and also picked up the term ‘grotesque’. The term ‘grotesque painting’ is used even today for genres that are inspired by the 16th century and reinterpreted innovatively.

Domus Transitoria

Domus Transitoria is the lesser-known original residence of Emperor Nero which was destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome that burned most of the city in AD 64. The structure was gigantic in size and was an important building that connected Nero’s imperial holding in Palatine Hill and the Esquiline zone. Some parts of Domus Transitoria are preserved and accessible today.

Among these is the Nymphaeum of Polyphemus, found under the Baths of Livia,  which stands to be a place of immeasurable value and magnificent beauty. The waterworks surrounding the structure and a triclinium (a couch for reclining) amidst porphyry columns and marble pilasters are all reminiscent of the emperor’s dream of leisure and amusement. The pictorial remains of Domus Transitoria including stucco decorations and parts of the marble flooring are conserved and displayed at the Palatine Museum.

The Colossus of Nero

The Colossus of Nero (Colossus Neronis) was a 98 feet bronze statue of the emperor, Nero Claudius, where he is depicted as the sun god. It was originally in a vestibule in the Domus Aurea but eventually, it was moved to the Flavian Amphitheatre which later became known as the Colosseum. The statue, designed by Greek architect Zenodorus,  was originally placed at the main entrance of the Domus Aurea. Emperor Vespasian placed a solar crown on it and renamed the statue Colossus Solis, shortly after Nero’s death in AD 68. 

Unfortunately, today only the base of the statue remains near the Colosseum and is believed to have been destroyed in one of the earthquakes in the 5th century.