Ancient Roman ‘domus’ with mosaic floors under modern flats

Ancient Roman ‘domus’ with mosaic floors under modern flats

Remains of a magnificent Roman villa, or domus, under the apartment building. – AFP photos

It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but a building in central Rome holds a hidden treasure in the basement: The remains of a Roman era home, including elaborate mosaics. At the entrance of the 1950s building at the foot of Rome’s Aventine Hill, all appears normal, with a resident loaded with shopping bags kindly holding the door.

But venture a bit further, and down a short flight of stairs one arrives at the prize, hiding behind an ordinary grey metal door. It is there where mosaics from a Roman “domus”, or home, dating from between the first century BC to the second century AD, are visible.

Ensuing generations of Romans imposed six different levels of floors over the ages until in 2014, the remains were revealed by excavations to transform the former headquarters of the National Bank of Labour into an apartment building after its purchase by French bank BNP Paribas. “We are here inside an ‘archaeological box’… an architectural structure having two functions: to protect the mosaics and to allow the public to have access to it,” Roberto Narducci, an archaeologist from Rome’s Directorate of