House of the Silver Wedding

The Casa delle Nozze d'Argento is one of the largest and most lavishly appointed private residences in Pompeii, its floor plan openly modeled on a Hellenistic palace, complete with a grand atrium and an unusually tall colonnaded peristyle. Excavated between 1891 and 1908, the house received its modern name in 1893 to mark the silver wedding anniversary of the Italian royal couple, King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy. Its last known occupant was Lucius Albucius Celsus, a member of an old and wealthy Pompeiian family who perished in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Second-style wall paintings and mosaic floors survive in remarkable condition, offering a rare window into aristocratic domestic life in the early Roman Empire. Today the house is roofed and open to visitors as part of the Pompeii archaeological park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.