The Museo Ninfeo exhibits the structures and artefacts of an area of the Horti Lamiani (Lamian Gardens), scientifically investigated for the first time and which has returned to the city a page in the history of the Esquiline Hill.
Crucial in the setting up of this museum was the close cooperation of the Special Superintendency of Rome and the ENPAM (National Doctors and Dentists’ Social Security and Welfare Body), with the aim of returning to the city a common heritage and a page of its history.
A BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Banner photo by Roma Fotografia
The space that opens up before the visitor's eyes was occupied in ancient Roman times by a section of the Horti Lamiani (Lamian Gardens), a sumptuous private residence of the Roman era surrounded by lush gardens. The residence was built by the consul Lucius Aelius Lamia at the beginning of the 1st century AD and soon became imperial property: many emperors, including Claudius, Caligula, Severus Alexander inhabited and modified these spaces. According to a model inspired by the royal palaces of the Hellenistic East, buildings decorated with precious marbles and statues were alternated with green spaces, small temples, gardens, squares and groves, wild animals and exotic plants.
TOUR ROUTE IN BRIEF
The museum tour winds around the remains of a large square with a nymphaeum, and shows the decorations that adorned it, the objects that were used here, and the plants and animals which could once be seen in the gardens. The excavation of this sector of the Horti Lamiani has yielded over 100,000 fragments of pottery and a huge quantity of other finds, including marbles, painted plaster, domestic animal bones, oysters, shells.
NOT TO BE MISSED
The discovery of two very special, valuable and delicate finds: two female heads. The two faces were Greek theatre masks, recognisable as tragedy characters due to the expression on their faces, caught in a cry of terror, and which must have decorated the painted walls of a building.
A large fresco that once decorated the wall of a corridor at least 15 metres long.
The discovery of four small bowls which still contain the remains of coloured pigments used for painting.
How to reach
Train: Termini stop
Buses: 50, 105, 360, 590
Trams: 5-14-19