Casa del Colonnato Tuscanico, on a panel, the origin of the city dedicated to Hercules.
The unique layout of the complex suggests that the Casa del Colonnato Tuscanico is the result of the merging of two originally distinct living spaces. A first corridor is flanked by two shops facing the Decumano Massimo, but communicating with the house. The shop, with an entrance at number 16, was originally a cubic room open to the atrium, painted in the III Style with a scene of sacrifice in the presence of Hercules. From the atrium, with its original tuff impluvium covered in marble in the imperial age and transformed into a fountain, another corridor leads to the peristyle with columns, which gives the house its name. On the right is the triclinium, the large dining room, the walls of which are decorated with images of Bacchus and Apollo. On the west side of the peristyle are the service rooms: the kitchen, with a counter and a lararium painting featuring serpents and agatodemons, and the storage rooms. During the work that led to the reopening of the house, two archaeological trenches were carried out to better define the stages of the building’s construction history. The first was carried out in the atrium, while the second was between the hallway behind the tablinium and the peristyle. In both cases, the results confirmed the initial hypothesis. Originally, there were two separate blocks built during the 2nd century BC, which were unified only in the early imperial period following a comprehensive reorganization of the entire northwestern sector of the Insula, where the so-called Collegio degli Augustali was also built.
Technical Interventions Report in the Casa del Colonnato Tuscanico
In the architectural and structural field, multiple objectives characterized the design of interventions in the six domus, including:
- Experimenting with repeatable techniques, particularly regarding the improvement of interventions on modern integration elements;
- Experimenting with approaches for visitor experience methods in order to enhance appreciation and later monitor the impact on the archaeological heritage;
- Addressing the issue of in-situ protection of charred wood artifacts, alongside restoration and consolidation interventions;
- Studying the seismic vulnerability of the buildings, which in the urban context of the ancient city of Herculaneum cannot be considered as isolated units, but rather closely interconnected with the surrounding context of the insula. As a result of seismic vulnerability assessments, targeted interventions were designed to improve the response of the ruins to dynamic forces.
The Casa del Colonnato Tuscanico is the domus in which all of the above-mentioned themes have been most extensively addressed, with complete responses and solutions provided. In this house, affected by the forms of degradation typically caused by the lack of roofs and characterized by structural elements made from materials incompatible with the fragile archaeological structures (e.g., reinforced concrete beams; or excessively heavy roof structures for the masonry), works were carried out mainly in the peristyle area, while not neglecting the critical issues in the atrium area (repairing wall crests, replacing the covering floor in the tablinium, and replacing reinforced concrete beams with wooden beams).
Of particular significance was the delicate intervention of partial disassembly and lifting of the masonry above the peristyle columns, along with the entablature, followed by the raising of the columns themselves by adding layers of bricks, to address the misalignment of the ancient beam positions in the masonry.
Most of the interventions on the decorative elements selected in this project prioritize the consolidation of plaster and the painted film, rather than more aesthetic operations like cleaning or touch-ups. This was because the goal during the design phase was to eliminate the risk of losing the heritage, aiming to standardize the conservation conditions with those of the rest of the site, which was undergoing changes.