Domus Aurea

Lonely Planet review

A monumental exercise in vanity, the Domus Aurea (Golden House) was Nero's great gift to himself. Built after the fire of AD 64 and named after the gold that covered its façade, it was a huge palace complex covering much of the Palatino (Palatine), Oppio (Oppian) and Celio (Caelian) hills. Its grounds, which included an artificial lake, covered up to a third of the 1st-century city.

A paranoid meglomaniac, Nero was not a popular man. After his death in 68, his successors were quick to remove all trace of his excesses: Vespasian drained the lake and built the Colosseum in its place, Domitian built his palace on the Palatine, and Trajan constructed a baths complex on top of the Oppian Hill using the Domus Aurea as a foundation. This is the area that is currently being excavated.

Nero was a great pillager and had hundreds of Greek bronzes and marble copies of Greek statues in his palace, including the Galata Morente (Dying Gaul) and Galata Suicida (Gaul's Suicide) - now in the Capitoline Museums and Palazzo Altemps respectively.

During the Renaissance, artists (including Ghirlandaio, Perugino and Raphael) lowered themselves into the ruins in order to study the frescoed grottos and doodle on the walls. All later used motifs from the Domus Aurea frescoes in their work.