Explore Domus Aurea: Nero’s golden legacy

The West Wing is the best-conserved part of the entire Domus Aurea complex that reflects the luxury of this pleasure palace. This structure has two floors and at least 140 rooms with ceilings as high as 11 meters. The main entrance is through the Sacra, from the Forum and is surrounded by scenery of vast gardens spanning over 125 acres and extending into parklands and lakes.

The ground floor was dedicated mainly to banquet halls adorned with wall paintings. This one courtyard, in the West Wing, had not less than 50 banquet rooms.

Another pentagonal courtyard with 15 separate rooms was decorated with glass mosaics. One of these 15 rooms, is the ‘Golden Vault’ that had gilded ceilings, panels of marble and a striking picture of Zeus abducting Ganymede, from Greek mythology.

The Domus Aurea octagonal room has a concrete dome which was originally covered with glass mosaics. This dome and the use of concrete for vaulting in buildings went on to become common in Roman architecture.

Famulus, a Roman painter, spectacularly decorated Nero’s Golden House. He was known as the ‘floridly extravagant artist’. The Golden House is considered a ‘prison’ that contained all of his fabulous productions. The walls and ceilings of Domus Aurea were filled with frescoes. It is a mural painting technique that involves using water-based paint on wet plaster which in turn makes the painting an integral part of it. There are depictions of horses with leaflike legs and unholy hybrids of animals and humans prowling over unusual architectural features, painted in a vivid spectrum of ancient Technicolour.

Most parts of Nero’s Golden House remained buried and unknown until the Rennaisance. It was only then passionate artists like Pinturicchio, Giulio Romano, Ghirlandaio and Raffaello went underground to recreate the decorative motifs and also picked up the term ‘grotesque’. The term ‘grotesque painting’ is used even today for genres that are inspired by the 16th century and reinterpreted innovatively.

Domus Transitoria is the lesser-known original residence of Emperor Nero which was destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome that burned most of the city in AD 64. The structure was gigantic in size and was an important building that connected Nero’s imperial holding in Palatine Hill and the Esquiline zone. Some parts of Domus Transitoria are preserved and accessible today.

Among these is the Nymphaeum of Polyphemus, found under the Baths of Livia,  which stands to be a place of immeasurable value and magnificent beauty. The waterworks surrounding the structure and a triclinium (a couch for reclining) amidst porphyry columns and marble pilasters are all reminiscent of the emperor’s dream of leisure and amusement. The pictorial remains of Domus Transitoria including stucco decorations and parts of the marble flooring are conserved and displayed at the Palatine Museum.

The Colossus of Nero (Colossus Neronis) was a 98 feet bronze statue of the emperor, Nero Claudius, where he is depicted as the sun god. It was originally in a vestibule in the Domus Aurea but eventually, it was moved to the Flavian Amphitheatre which later became known as the Colosseum. The statue, designed by Greek architect Zenodorus,  was originally placed at the main entrance of the Domus Aurea. Emperor Vespasian placed a solar crown on it and renamed the statue Colossus Solis, shortly after Nero’s death in AD 68.

Unfortunately, today only the base of the statue remains near the Colosseum and is believed to have been destroyed in one of the earthquakes in the 5th century.

60 AD - 64 AD

The Domus Transitoria was Nero’s first residence in Palatinebuilt probably in AD 60 and, as the name suggests, was used when the emperor was in transit between stately holdings in Palatine and Esquiline. Its main building is considered to be on the western side ofOppian Hill, under the Baths of Trajan. It also had a classic nymphaeum dedicated to the nymphs and a portico of four columns with plunging fountains at the bottom. Domus Transitoria was built so that Nero’s guests could lie down and admire the spectacle created by the unique architecture of this residence. It was, however, destroyed by the Great Fire in AD 64 and the Domus Aurea was built in its place.

64 AD - 68 AD

Nero Claudius seized huge chunks of land owned by the aristocrats, extending up to the western side of Oppian Hill for the construction of his Golden House. Celebrated Roman architects and engineers, Severus and Celer, and Famulus, a highly studied Roman painter, were in charge of the architecture and decorations. The nuclei of the palace were located on Palatine Hill and Oppian Hill. This new palace was famous for its exquisite decoration, coating of precious stones and gold leaves, wall paintings and coloured marble. Its complex included over 300 rooms, baths, and many banquet halls including a vestibule housing the famous Colossus Neronis, the colossal statue of Nero Claudius, bearing semblance to the sun god.

Post 68 AD

It is also probable that the Domus Aurea was never completed. Otho and Titus, later Roman rulers, possibly allotted money for the completion of the structure on the Oppian Hill that was inhabited by Emperor Vitellius in AD 69. Following the death of Nero, the palace was abandoned and destroyed to some extent in order to erase all existing memories of the tyrannical emperor. This process is called Damnatio memoriae in Lain which means ‘condemnation of memory’ or the exclusion of a person from official accounts. This was seen as a massive embarrassment to Nero’s successors as a symbol of debauchery. Within a decade, Domus Aurea was stripped of its precious stones, marble and ivory, the great lake was drained and the Colosseum was built on it in 70 AD.