{"id":38573,"date":"2026-08-07T10:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/38573\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T10:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:10:09","slug":"roman-era-building-with-colorful-mosaics-and-frescoes-found-beneath-romes-villa-celimontana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/38573\/","title":{"rendered":"Roman-era building with colorful mosaics and frescoes found beneath Rome’s Villa Celimontana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Archaeologists have uncovered an Imperial-era building<\/a> with rich mosaics, frescoes, and marble decorations beneath Rome\u2019s Villa Celimontana. The find came during work to stabilize the park\u2019s historic retaining wall, a project funded through Italy\u2019s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, known as the PNRR. What started as repair work soon turned into a major archaeological excavation.<\/p>\n

\"Roman-era<\/a>View of the newly uncovered Imperial-era building. Credit: Fabio Caricchia, Italian Ministry of Culture<\/p>\n

The team uncovered eight rooms from a building first built during the second century CE. Five rooms have been fully excavated, while three survive only in part. Floors still hold geometric mosaics<\/a>, walls keep large areas of painted plaster, and parts of painted ceilings have survived for almost 2,000 years. Archaeologists also found decorative marble panels made with the opus sectile technique, showing the building once held rich interior decoration.<\/p>\n

One of the finest finds is a large mosaic with a sea theme. A dolphin, fish, lobster, and crab surround a large mixing bowl, known as a krater. Beneath later floors, archaeologists found pieces of an older mosaic from the Antonine period. Those layers show the building changed over time before major rebuilding during the third century CE.<\/p>\n

\"Roman-era<\/a>Mosaics uncovered inside the Imperial-era building. Credit: Fabio Caricchia, Italian Ministry of Culture<\/p>\n

The find adds fresh evidence from the Caelian Hill, one of ancient Rome\u2019s oldest and most important districts. Each room helps fill gaps in the area\u2019s long history and offers new clues about how people lived and worked there during the Roman Empire.<\/p>\n

\"Roman-era<\/a>Another view of the excavation site. Credit: Fabio Caricchia, Italian Ministry of Culture<\/p>\n

Researchers still don\u2019t know the building\u2019s original purpose. Rich mosaics, frescoes<\/a>, and marble decoration point toward an elite home owned by a wealthy Roman family. The location tells another story. Several features uncovered during the excavation suggest the structure belonged to the barracks of the Fifth Cohort of the Vigiles.<\/p>\n

The Vigiles served as Rome\u2019s firefighters and night watch. They fought fires, patrolled the streets after dark, and helped keep order across the city. If the new building formed part of their headquarters, archaeologists would need to rethink the size of one of Rome\u2019s largest public service and military complexes.<\/p>\n

\"Roman-era<\/a>Painted fresco fragments found during the excavation. Credit: Fabio Caricchia, Italian Ministry of Culture<\/p>\n

The next stage of the project will focus on studying the walls, floors, artifacts, and soil layers. Those studies will help answer the biggest question surrounding the site and explain how the building changed through the centuries.<\/p>\n

The Villa Celimontana excavation shows how work meant to protect historic structures still brings ancient Rome back into view. Every new room adds another piece to the city\u2019s long history, with painted walls and colorful mosaics surviving where people once lived, worked, or served the Roman state.<\/p>\n

More information: Italian Ministry of Culture<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Archaeologists have uncovered an Imperial-era building with rich mosaics, frescoes, and marble decorations beneath Rome\u2019s Villa Celimontana. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20387,7724,5110,21853,16941,27],"class_list":["post-38573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rome","tag-ancient-frescoes","tag-roman-archaeology","tag-roman-architecture","tag-roman-art","tag-roman-villa","tag-rome"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}