House of the Vettii
House of the Vettii features on the Gingerguide audio walk through Pompeii. Give it roughly ~30 min: enough to look, hear a two to three minute story on the spot, and ask the AI guide whatever the story leaves open.
- Type ruins
- Suggested visit ~30 min
- Pompeii Pompeii guide
About House of the Vettii
The finest surviving example of a wealthy freedman's house, with spectacular mythological frescoes in the dining rooms and the famous Priapus fresco at the entrance, owned by two brothers who made their fortune in trade.
The House of the Vettii is the most completely preserved and most richly decorated house in Pompeii, owned by two freedman brothers, Aulus Vettius Restitutus and Aulus Vettius Conviva, who had made their fortune in commercial trade and invested their profits in the most ambitious domestic decoration programme in the city. The entrance displays the famous Priapus fresco, the fertility god shown weighing his enormous phallus against a bag of coins, an image believed to ward off the evil eye and bring commercial prosperity. Inside, the house is decorated with an extraordinary programme of mythological frescoes in the Fourth Pompeian style: friezes of Cupids performing various trades and professions; panels depicting the twelve labours of Hercules and mythological rape scenes; and elaborate architectural trompe l'oeil paintings that create the illusion of space. The atrium, tablinum, and two large dining rooms (triclinia) are all decorated to a standard that surpasses many aristocratic houses.
Did you know? The Priapus fresco at the entrance of the House of the Vettii, showing the fertility god weighing his phallus, was one of the most reproduced images in early photography of Pompeii but was routinely cropped or obscured in 19th-century publications.
How long is a visit to House of the Vettii?
Set aside roughly ~30 min for House of the Vettii. That covers a good look and the narrated story, and because you set the pace you can always stay on.
Is House of the Vettii worth your time?
House of the Vettii is among the 15 narrated highlights the Gingerguide team chose for Pompeii, so it is worth a look. Hear the story for the context, then ask the AI guide for anything more.
Nearby stops in Pompeii
Hear the story of House of the Vettii
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