Ancient Roman home opens to the public - with remote guided tours

ROME- An ancient Roman home more than 2,000 years old has opened to the public, but its spectacular mosaics, frescoes and stucco decorations will be accessible only via remote and web-streamed guided tours.

The “House of the Griffins”, named after animal decorations in one of its rooms, was an aristocratic residence on the Palatine Hill, which sits between the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus arena.

Dating back to the 2nd-1st century BC, it is one of the oldest homes from Rome’s Republican era. It was partly destroyed by the foundations of a palace built above it, but two floors have survived.

Little remains of the ground floor, apart from traces of the atrium, with a pool and mosaics. The underground floor, however, is full of wonders, yet accessible only via a dangerously steep and narrow staircase.

That makes it ill-suited for mass visits, so the Colosseum Archaeological Park came up with the idea of a “live-streamed guided tour system”, said project leader and archaeologist Federica Rinaldi.

Visitors are made to stand in a room while a guide ventures downstairs with a mobile camera strapped to their forehead, beaming back upstairs what they are seeing, projected onto a wall, capped with an expert’s explanation.

The home was previously only accessible to academics and researchers upon request. The new remote guided tours are being introduced following restoration work financed by the European Union’s post-COVID recovery funds.