See the newly restored Pompeii home that was once buried by Mt. Vesuvius
A house in the ancient Italian city of Pompeii was reopened to the public on Tuesday after an extensive restoration, 1,900 years after the city was destroyed by a massive volcanic eruption.
The House of the Vettii was buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. Believed by experts to have been originally built in the second century, the house was lost to eternity until it was unearthed during an archeological dig in the late 1800s.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
However, there is more to the house than meets the eye, as there are also rooms believed to have been used for wine-making, a perfumery, and even a brothel.
While the house has been open to the public previously, it had been shuttered for the past 20 years to allow for extensive restoration.
"The House of the Vetti is like the history of Pompeii and actually of Roman society within one house," Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of the Archeological Park of Pompeii, told The Associated Press. "So, you have this mixture: nature, architecture, art. But it is also a story about the social life of the Pompeiian society and actually the Roman world in this phase of history."
Photos of the house can be seen below:
