House of the Faun

As House of the Faun ( Casa del Fauno Italian ) is called one of the most famous houses of the ancient city of Pompeii. It is with an area of ​​2490 square meters, the largest private house in the city and was excavated in the years 1830-1832. It covers almost the entire Insula 12 of Regio VI.

The house is named after the bronze statue of a dancing faun, which was found on the northern edge of the impluvium. The original statue is in the National Museum in Naples, the copy you made ​​(as you already assumed, incorrectly) in the middle of the impluvium on. Special elegance was the home including through a relief-like decoration of the walls in the atrium, which even represented an imaginary floor, as well as the geometrically arranged garden.

The "House of the Faun " was built at the beginning of the 2nd century BC and rebuilt extensively already at the end of the same century. For example, the old atrium house was extended with Peristylhöfen ( The model for this was the Hellenistic Orient ), laid the spas in the area of ​​the kitchen and the murals renewed. However, the most important reconstruction was attaching several Alexandrian -influenced mosaics - especially important while the Alexander Mosaic, depicting Alexander the Great in battle.

More extraordinary mosaics are found in adjoining rooms of the peristyle: The lovemaking between a satyr and a Bacchante, as well as a fish mosaic.

In the front of the house several shops were embedded, which were separated by rough pillars or so-called half-columns. On the sidewalk is still before receipt of the written greeting to read "have".