Domus Aurea (Nero’s Golden House) Tour

Adult (18+ Years) - £63

Child (6-17 Years) - £59

Infant (0-5 Years) - FREE!

Our Domus Aurea tour begins in what was once a large porch with columns; from there, we proceed to a grotto with a large bath with a small waterfall. Even though the space is covered, the area is anything but dark. 

Light pours in through the porch’s side windows, accented by the shifting reflections of the water. It then reflects off the alabaster walls and ceilings to produce a wonderful light that looks like a spotlight on a river.

The tour continues to the Octagonal Room, the architectural heart of the Golden House, where Severus and Celer achieved the pinnacle of their trade.

We’ll pause for a moment to admire the two neighboring rooms, which are magnificent treasure troves of superbly maintained frescoes: the Room of Achilles and Skyros and the Room of Hector and Andromache.

We then move on to the most private area of them all, the Octagonal Hall, where the splendor of Nero’s palace never fails to astound us. 

Automatically, our eyes are directed to the ceiling, which is pierced by the outline of an open eye that once would have seen an infinitely deep universe full of stars. Nero’s fortunate visitors would feast while sprawled out on couches, viewing the cosmos and the works of art in the room’s centre from this inventive and romantic vantage position. 

It is not a surprise that this extraordinarily ambitious building served as a model for later structures like the magnificent Pantheon because it represented a unique innovation in Roman architecture.