House of the First Floor is located on the east side
of anonymous street south of Via dell Abbondanza. The building was
originally excavated between 1952 and 1955, and then in 1957. A
series of houses including the House of the First Floor in the area
miraculously preserved frescoes and decorations on the first floor
hence the name.
In the House of the First Floor there are
beautifully preserved frescoes of mythological scenes. However, in
some places the paint is swollen and ready to fall off. Without the
intervention of archaeologists, they may collapse in the near
future. In a small garden there was an aquarium in the Southeast
corner. There is also a rear exit. The wooden door had rotted, but
cement was poured into the void. When the earth was removed, an
exact copy remained in the place of the former door, but already of
cement.
A simple entrance (a) leads to a rectangular
atrium - living room (b), which does not have an ordinary central
pool. This part of the House on the First Floor is in very poor
condition. On the north side of the entrance to the mansion (a) is a
small door that opens into a narrow room with a small toilet.
Of the rooms located around the atrium, the best occlusion (c)
in the northwest corner of the living room was best preserved. The
room has significant portions of the frescoes, although most of the
details have been lost. The middle zone is rather indistinct, but
the lower zone consists of a rather high black and red frieze topped
with a red dado. A small rectangular window illuminates the room and
is rather high above the floor.
The office room (d) opens
from the northeast corner of the atrium. The room was badly damaged
and lost most of its plaster and murals. The remaining fragments are
in too poor condition to provide a realistic description of the
original design.
To the south of the office, the corridor
leads to the peristyle or home garden, which is surrounded by a
series of columns on its southern and eastern sides. The opening of
the extended eastern end of the andron is the aekus (e). The room is
decorated with frescoes in the fourth style with red panels
decorated with decorative borders framing fantastic architectural
views over the lower black frieze. Large red panels include small
still lifes. The upper zone consists of images of birds and
architectural motifs on a white background.
In the southeast corner of the garden is a large stone trough, possibly used as a reservoir for storing live fish.