In this house was found the only ancient portrait of Vesuvius before the eruption: a fresco in which the mountain has a single peak, is covered in vines to the top, and beside it stands Bacchus dressed in a bunch of grapes. It tells you two things: that the mountain had another shape, and that nobody thought it dangerous, because wine was grown on it.
What to see
The house is one of the largest in Pompeii, built in the second century before Christ and adapted several times: it has two atria, a nymphaeum with a fountain, a fish pond and a private bath suite, that is a bathhouse at home with hot rooms, which few in Pompeii had.
The rooms were repainted in the last years before the eruption, and the decoration includes a series of erotic panels in a secluded room whose purpose scholars still discuss. We do not know the owner for certain: the names proposed are those of two local politicians. The modern name of the house comes from the year of its excavation, 1879, eighteen centuries after the eruption.
Visiting
The house is in Regio IX, in the central part of the site, near via di Nola; the visit is covered by the Pompeii ticket, but the opening of individual houses changes: check the map at the gate. Twenty minutes.
Our editors' tip
The fresco with Vesuvius is no longer here: it is in the archaeological museum of Naples, like almost all the detached paintings. Look at it there and then come back to Pompeii, or do it the other way round: knowing that inside these rooms was the only image of the mountain before it blew changes the way you look at it from the end of the street.
