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House of the Centennial

Address: Regio IX, Insula 8
Area: 2175 square meters
Rooms: +40

The House of the Centennial is located on a street Via di Nola. The House of the Centennial got its name since it was excavated in 1879, eighteen hundred years after the famous eruption of Vesuvius. The house is also called the House of A. Rustia Veri and Tiberius Claudi Veri because these names were found on the frescoes inside the house. The building consists of two main elements; the original house of the Samnite period, based around the atrium (e) (shaded in the plan above) and the Hellenistic house centered around a large peristyle. The last extensions were built during the Roman rule. The House of the Centennial was built in the 2nd century BC, and its history includes several phases of renovation and repairs during the Imperial Roman period.

The entrance hall (a) opens on the south side of Via di Nola. The walls of the hallway retain some small fragments of plaster, but they are too weathered to give a realistic description of the original decoration. The hallway has an elegant black and white mosaic floor depicting mythical marine life, framed by a double black border.

A corridor leads to a rectangular atrium-central living room (b), which has a central pool for collecting rainwater. The atrium stores large plaster fragments on all four walls. However, all the ornamental details were lost; all that can be said is that the murals were painted on large red panels. The atrium is paved with black mosaic, which includes rows of white rows and framed by a double white frame. On each of the eastern, northern, and western sides of the atrium, there are two cubic servants' bedrooms, and room (c) is on the south side. It gives direct access to the peristyle (f) or the courtyard with the garden. This part of the house is rather poorly preserved, and all the rooms surrounding the atrium are in a semi-destructive condition. Only remnants of gypsum hint at the greatness of the fourth-style original mural decoration.

The secondary entrance (d) opens onto the smaller Samnite house (shaded in the plan above), whose atrium (e) has a bedroom from all four sides. This part of the house is in a worse state of preservation.