Nero's
Golden House
(aka "Disney World in Rome" or "the original Animal House")
In 64 AD, a great fire destroyed two-thirds of Rome. Then
Emperor, Nero used the razed land as a site for his new palace (nice guy, eh?).
Actually, it was more
like Disney World in the middle of Rome. The complex included palace
pavilions, an
amphitheater, a market, and bathing complex, beautiful gardens, zoos,
and parks where cattle roamed . There were hundreds of statues, grottoes,
porticoes painted with romantic landscapes, and waterfalls flowed all
over. The lake was surrounded by woods and fake sea villages, and it was so big
that ships could maneuver in it.
The main building, extravagantly crafted, boasted rooms and
hallways decorated almost entirely in gold. It became known as "Domus
Aurea", Latin for "Golden House", and was truly the original party pad!
Wow, what a party!
Nero had over 300 rooms built for entertaining, but no
sleeping quarters. There were pools in the floors and fountains splashing
in the corridors. Rooms were done in dazzling polished white marble and
shaped with niches and exedras that manipulated t he daylight.
Any room not more richly
 decorated, was adorned by frescos
with delicate swags, and bands of frieze whose style has been often imitated.
In one of the main dining areas, an ingenious mechanism, cranked by slaves, made
the ceiling underneath the dome revolve like the heavens, while perfume was
sprayed and rose petals were dropped on the assembled diners!
 Architects Severus and Celer also created several other architectural
"firsts" here:
* use of arches inside the home to create vaulted ceilings
* mosaics (previously restricted to floors) made with semi-precious stones
decorated those vaulted ceilings
* an octagonal hall, roofed by a concrete dome, open on all sides to the
garden and main dining rooms
* that dome was also the first interior use of a dome except in temples
built for the gods.
Tells you a little about Nero's opinion of himself. And on that
subject...
Nero loves Nero
The house's entrance was adorned by the Colossus Neronis - a 120 foot
high bronze statue of Nero he commissioned for himself. This monstrosity was
built in imitation of the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the
Ancient World. Later, other emperors changed the head of the statue to
represent gods or themselves until, finally, Emperor Hadrian had the statue
moved to the nearby Flavium Amphitheater - which subsequently became known as the
Colosseum. Ever wonder how it got its name?
And this is all Nice-Guy-Nero had to say at the Domus Aurea's dedication:
"I am at last beginning to be housed like a human being." What
happened to the Domus Aurea
After Nero's
death, the Golden House was a severe embarrassment to his successors. It was
stripped of its marble, its jewels and its ivory within a decade. The palace
and grounds were filled with earth and built over. Within 40 years,
the Golden House was completely obliterated, buried beneath the new
constructions, but paradoxically this ensured the wall paintings' survival
by protecting them from dampness.
When a young Roman inadvertently fell through the Roman hillside at the end of the 15th century, he found himself in a
strange cave or grotta
filled with painted figures. Soon the young artists of Rome were having
themselves let down on boards knotted to ropes to see for themselves. Even
Michelangelo crawled underground and was let down a shaft to study them.
He carved his name on the walls to let the world know he had been there.
A part of the Domus Aurea has been recently reopened to the public, after
many years of restoration.
* compiled with information from www.the-colosseum.net,
www.greatbuildings.com, www.itabc.cnr.it/buildingvirtualrome,
www.hyderome.blogspot.com, and en.wikipedia.org.
Fun Feature Archives:
* Christopher Wren and the
Guildhall at Windsor - "architect knows best"
This page was last updated on
08/31/08.
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