Samnite House, Ancient Roman domus in Herculaneum, Italy.
The Samnite House is a Roman private home in Herculaneum that displays a central atrium with reception rooms and service spaces arranged around it. The structure follows the traditional Roman residential design with rooms organized to provide both social and practical functions.
This residence was built in the 2nd century BCE and remained occupied until Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE. The volcanic disaster preserved the structure, capturing a moment frozen in time from daily Roman life.
The house reflects how local communities blended Samnite building customs with Roman ideas in their daily spaces. You can see this mixture in the way rooms connect and how they were decorated.
You can reach this residence by entering through the main portal located where two main streets intersect in the site layout. The pathways through the archaeological area are marked, making it easy to navigate between different structures.
The south-facing wall contains an elevated support connected to the water supply system that served the city, with carved markings about water rights still visible. This reveals how individual homes were linked to the larger public infrastructure network.
Location: Ercolano
Part of: Herculaneum
Address: Insula V, 1, sul cardo IV superiore
GPS coordinates: 40.80610,14.34740
Latest update: December 6, 2025 17:43
Italy holds archaeological sites spanning several millennia, offering insights into Etruscan, Greek and Roman civilizations. These locations include necropolises with thousands of tombs, well-preserved Roman villas and ancient settlements along the Mediterranean coast. Many of these sites lie beyond the more familiar destinations and document different aspects of Italian history. The Necropolis of Pantalica near Sortino contains approximately 5,000 rock-cut tombs from the Sicilian Bronze Age, while the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii is known for its wall paintings from the first century BCE. Villa del Casale near Piazza Armerina displays Roman floor mosaics covering more than 37,500 square feet (3,500 square meters). Etruscan burial sites like the Tomb of the Orcus in Tarquinia preserve frescoes from the fourth century BCE. The Archaeological Park of Elea-Velia near Ascea includes remains of a Greek colony founded in the sixth century BCE.
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