Ancient Roman Fresco and Maritime City Mosaic Unveiled at Restored Baths of Trajan

ROME – Italian authorities on Tuesday revealed what experts believe may be the largest fresco and mosaic ensemble from ancient Rome: a 1st-century AD scene of a maritime city preserved inside the site that would later become the world’s biggest bath complex.

Rome Mayor Robert Gualtieri introduced the newly restored “Painted City” fresco and the “Great Mosaic,” both found in an underground gallery during 1990s excavations at the Baths of Trajan on Oppian Hill, close to the Colosseum.

The ancient works are now being shown to visitors for the first time, with access limited at the start to groups of 15 during a trial opening on weekends beginning this month. Officials will use the test period to monitor how the fragile decorations react to higher humidity levels and other climate-related effects before considering wider public entry.

Gualtieri said the fresco, which presents a walled harbor city from a bird’s-eye perspective, is the largest wall painting of its type known from ancient Rome — a status he said makes public access especially important.

“They are truly unique in the world, both from the point of view of artistic beauty and the historic and documental importance,” he said at the unveiling.

Rome’s cultural superintendent, Claudio Parisi Presicce, said the grandeur of the port city as depicted in the fresco, with buildings, a theater and temple, public piazzas and towers, was particularly well conserved.

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“We don’t know what city it refers to, but it must have been a particularly well-known one,” he said

The mosaic, for its part, measures some 15 meters (yards) high and features intricately decorated columns and architectural elements and figures over four different levels. The top levels seem almost like a theatrical scene, while at the bottom are designs of another depiction of a port city that were only recently discovered during the restoration.

The Baths of Trajan, which were dedicated by Emperor Trajan in 109 AD, extended over six hectares and were at the time the largest bath complex in the world. They incorporated an earlier baths complex, the Domus Aurea, and were designed on a different trajectory to take better advantage of the water temperatures to optimize the thermal experience for users.

The complex now open to the public includes a grand semicircular upper-level “library” which archaeologists believe was part of the baths complex and allowed users not only to practice sport and bathe but also to participate in cultural activities.