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House of Apollo

Address: Insula 7
Area: 712 square meters
Rooms: 13

House of Apollo gets its name from the frescoes and sculptures about the myth of Apollo, found in a room at the back of the garden. Perhaps the house belonged to M. Herenulli Communicas, whose name was found on a ring discovered in 1830. The facade, which has a rather simple look, hides the interior, which was completely decorated with elegant fourth-style frescoes. Two small bronze sculptures were found in the House of Apollo. One sculpture depicted the Greco-Roman god Apollo, and the other depicted a faun hunting deer.

The corridor (a) to the House of Apollo opens on the west side of Via di Mercurio. During the eruption, the house suffered significant damage and lost most of its scenery when it was excavated in the 1830s. The walls of the short hallway retain some remnants of gypsum, but the murals are too weathered to give a detailed description of the decorative elements. The corridor leads to a square atrium-living room (b) with a central pool and rooms that were located on three sides. The walls of the central living room of the mansion retain, although faded, the remains of gypsum. The central picture on the southern wall of the atrium depicts the god Apollo holding the sun in his left hand. In the southeast corner there is a staircase (s) to the upper floor. In ancient times, there were the main chambers of the owner of the house. Today there is little left of them. Tourists are not allowed there, but there is nothing to look at. The ash that had accumulated on the roofs of the posh mansion brought down almost the entire second floor of the House of Apollo. The bedroom (d) in the northwestern corner of the atrium was decorated with fourth-style murals with yellow-red panels above the lower dark red decorative frieze.