House of Propertius

The so-called House of Propertius is an ancient Roman structure that was discovered during a series of excavations by the Subasio archaeological academy in the mid-19th to the 20th centuries.
It is named for Sextus Propertius, a Latin elegiac poet who was born in Assisi toward the end of the 1st century BC, on the basis of the translation of a Latin inscription on the wall.

The spaces found – three communicating rooms and a long corridor called a “cryptoportico” – are located below the Sanctuary of the Spoliation. To reach it you pass through the crypt of the old structure of the church dating from the 9th century. Part of the structure rests on a section of the city walls at the southern edge of the ancient Asisium.
The floor and wall decorations were done using techniques mostly attributable to the 1st century AD, whereas the walls themselves appear to date from an earlier period. Among the excellent floor decorations is a floor in opus sectile, i.e. slabs of marble coming from areas outside of Italy, such as Asia and Africa, that form a simple geometric design.

The surviving frescoes can be compared to similar decorations found in buildings from the same era in Rome, such as Nero’s Domus Transitoria. A “morellone red” background, a brownish-purple hue, sets off the marine-themed figures; while, on a very bright yellow ochre background, there is a succession of pinakés, small squares with mythological scenes described in graffiti written in Greek. A niche in the wall of the cryptoportico is frescoed with a viridarium, a reproduction of several types of birds set among the bushes.