Villa of the Mysteries

Outside the walls of Pompeii, on a slope that once looked out over the Bay of Naples, lies the house that holds the most famous painted room of the ancient world. The Villa of the Mysteries takes its name from a cycle of frescoes that wraps around all four walls of one room: nearly life-size figures set against a deep red ground, moving through a sequence of scenes that most scholars read as a woman's initiation into the mysteries of Dionysus, perhaps in preparation for marriage. The god himself reclines at the centre of the main wall with Ariadne, surrounded by satyrs, maenads, a frightened young woman and a winged figure raising a whip. What exactly the rite involved is still argued over, and that uncertainty is part of the room's pull.

The paintings belong to the so-called Second Style of Pompeian wall painting and are usually dated to around 70–60 BC. The villa itself began as a grand suburban residence with more than 60 rooms, terraces and hanging gardens, built on an artificial platform held up by vaulted corridors along the hillside. After the earthquake of 62 AD much of the city fell into disrepair, and the villa was turned into a working farm: a wine press found during excavation has been set back in its original place. Its owners remain unknown, though a bronze seal names a freedman of the Istacidii family, who may have owned or managed the estate.

When Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD the house was buried under metres of pumice and ash but suffered little structural damage, which is why its walls and painted surfaces came out of the ground so complete. It was uncovered from 1909, initially on private land, and investigated systematically by Amedeo Maiuri in 1929–1930. Casts of victims found in the house record people who sheltered here during the eruption. The villa forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata.

Pompeii was a prosperous Roman town of merchants, farmers and vineyard owners near the mouth of the Sarno river; preserved by the same disaster, its streets, houses and public buildings now give the most detailed picture of everyday Roman life anywhere.

Getting there

The villa lies about 400 m north-west of the walls of ancient Pompeii, outside the Herculaneum Gate, at the edge of the modern town of Pompei; Boscoreale is about 2 km away. Pompei Scavi – Villa dei Misteri station, on the Circumvesuviana line between Naples and Sorrento, is a short walk from the archaeological site. Naples International Airport (NAP) is about 22 km away.