Domus del Frutteto

The Domus was affected by safety measures as well as the restoration of the decorative elements, the latter enhanced by the Luum lighting fixtures.

Lemons and strawberry trees, fruit and ornamental plants, fluttering birds, and a fig tree with a snake clinging to it. This is how the floral cubicles of the house of the Orchard in Pompeii were decorated. Lush vegetation painted on the walls, enveloping the rest of the ancient inhabitants of this house located on Via dell’Abbondanza, which preserves one of the most beautiful examples of garden painting found in the city.

The frescoes depict in one of the rooms a bright garden, imagined by day in the full luxuriance of greenery, with a precision of detail that makes it possible to recognize plant species and in the other, a garden immersed in the darkness of the night, with three trees of different sizes, including the large fig tree with the snake, an omen of prosperity.

Unlike other houses where garden painting was reserved for the state rooms, here it is found in the cubicles. In some environments, the representations are also enriched by Egyptian motifs with references to Isis, a probable sign of devotion to the goddess by the owner.

The Domus, partially excavated in 1913 and then in 1951, has the classic atrium layout, around which various rooms are arranged and in the back a green space with a summer triclinium, used during the hot season as an alternative to the more internal triclinium.

The ornamental gardens, both depicted on the walls to expand the visual space of the rooms, and as internal green spaces, where the dwelling allowed it, characterized many houses in the ancient city