Casa (domus) Bellezza

The ancient building in Largo Arrigo VII, known as Casa Bellezza - but the name actually belongs to the modern building above it, which belonged to the maestro Vincenzo Bellezza in the 1930s - was brought to light and partially excavated during the renovation of the building in the 1950s; subsequent interventions by the Soprintendenza provided static consolidation and restoration of the paintings. Recent work by F.Boldrighini has made it possible to re-examine the data on the planimetric and architectural development of the building between the Republican and Imperial periods.

Of the rich Roman domus, located partly under the modern building, partly under its garden and partly under the road (at a depth of about 10 metres), a portion of the basement and traces of some rooms on the upper floor are preserved. The remains currently consist of two frescoed rooms that open onto a cryptoporticus; a third room, probably also painted, is still underground and has not been excavated due to static problems of the modern building above.

The cryptoporticus, of which only the main arm remains, is covered by a barrel vault, its walls are whitewashed (but in the original phase it was decorated with paintings) and was illuminated by large window openings, walled up during modern restoration. The rooms that open onto the cryptoporticus, rectangular in shape and with a vaulted ceiling, are painted with frescoes (on a white and dark yellow background respectively) and are paved with coloured stones on a ground of cocciopesto; the central room has a row of four Ionic columns covered in stucco along the long northern side, which must have corresponded to a similar row along the opposite side.

In the upper level three walls have been documented that perfectly overlap those of the southern lower room. From this level come also some architectural elements, including fragments of peperino columns, which allow us to hypothesize the existence of a colonnaded portico in correspondence of the underlying cryptoporticus.