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Steps from the Colosseum, a virtual tour offers a peek inside an ancient Roman house

The House of the Griffins and its frescoes can now be explored via an onsite virtual tour into otherwise off-limits underground areas

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Colosseum Archeological Park guide Valentina uses a head-mounted device to livestream a guided tour of the newly restored underground House of the Griffins, dated between the second and first century BC, on the Palatine Hill next to the Colosseum, in Rome, Italy. Photo: AP
Associated Press

One of the best-preserved ancient Roman homes on the Palatine Hill is opening to the public for the first time, albeit via a live-streamed tour of its hard-to-reach underground frescoes and mosaics.

The House of the Griffins was first discovered during early 20th century excavations of the Palatine Hill, which rises up from the Roman Forum and dominates views of central Rome today with its striking red-brick ruins.
The verdant hill, located just off the Colosseum, was the site of temples and homes of leading citizens during Rome’s Republican era (509BC-27BC). It became the aristocratic quarter during the Roman Empire that followed, when new palaces were built on top of the older homes.
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The House of the Griffins is one of those earlier Republican-era homes, and was hidden to the world underground after the Emperor Domitian built his palace on top of it in the first century AD.

Now for the first time, the general public can virtually visit the House of the Griffins and its newly restored frescoes, including the decoration that gives the home its name: an arched lunette fresco featuring two griffins, the half-eagle, half-lion mythological creatures.

A white stucco griffin, the half-eagle, half-lion creature after which the House of the Griffins is named, adorns an arched entryway. Photo: AP
A white stucco griffin, the half-eagle, half-lion creature after which the House of the Griffins is named, adorns an arched entryway. Photo: AP
Colosseum Archeological Park guide Valentina live-streams a guided tour of the newly restored underground House of the Griffins. Photo: AP
Colosseum Archeological Park guide Valentina live-streams a guided tour of the newly restored underground House of the Griffins. Photo: AP

Visitors will not actually walk through the home’s intimate rooms, which are only accessible via a perilously steep staircase underground. Rather, visitors above ground will watch as a tour guide wearing a head-mounted smartphone descends into the domus (a Roman family house) and walks through its rooms, live streaming the visit and narration.

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