Following a chance discovery made in the historic center in 2001 in the basement of Palazzo Giampè, excavations were carried out that brought to light the remains of a Roman domus (house) dating from sometime between the second half of the 1st century BC and the first decades of the 1st century AD.
Part of the excavations continued inside a restaurant in the basement of the neighboring Palazzo del Cardinale, where large mosaics with tessellated geometric decorations were found in the domus’s atrium and triclinium. The house thus discovered occupies a total of 400 m2 and currently consists of 13 rooms and a peristyle.
What is unique about the rooms found under Palazzo Giampè is that they have preserved the wall height of over 4 meters high, with the fresco still intact. The decoration, in a canonical third Pompeian style and in vivid colors such as yellow ochre and the famous “Pompeian red”, features: scenes of daily life portrayed in small squares called pinakés; graceful architectural structures; and Egyptian-inspired elements such as winged sphinxes.
In the first of the rooms that can be visited there is a fine geometric floral mosaic made with very small black and white tesserae. In this room a particular terracotta artifact was found, the lararium, from which the domus took its name. It is a small domestic temple dedicated to the Lares deities, guardians of the home and family, with a sculpted sylvan god inside, on exhibit in the National Archeological Museum of Perugia.
Audio guide: included in the audio guide that can be purchased at the I.A.T. in Piazza del Comune
Audio guide languages: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish
Guided tours: yes, by reservation
Guided tour languages: Italian, English
Restrooms: yes
Infopoint: no
Shops: no
Refreshment points: no
Cloakroom: no
Accessibility: not accessible.
Open with reservations.
Admission: full price €5.00
Full price combined ticket including admission to the House of Propertius: €10.00
Free: under age 8.
Via Sant’Antonio, 5
The Lararium Domus is located in the historic center of Assisi, not far from the centrally located Piazza del Comune.
On foot: the building is easily reached on foot from any part of town.
By bus: 500 meters from the Line C stop in Piazza Matteotti; 150 meters from the Line A-B stop, Piazza del Comune.
By car: only authorized vehicles can enter the historic center of Assisi.