Italy Trip Sept 2025 - Part 6 Herculaneum, Campania

Herculaneum was Pompeii's smaller and more affluent neighbour and it was estimated to have a population of about 4-5,000 people.

When Vesuvius erupted in AD79, Herculaneum was hit by a number of pyroclastic surges containing mud, gas and hot ash which covered the town up to a height of a three storey building. People would have been killed instantly by the intense heat. By contrast, Pompeii which is about 5km further away from the volcano was hit by a reduced pyroclastic temperature, which preserved bodies and wooden objects in different ways.

These photos were taken from current town levels looking down into the ancient town. It shows you how deep the area was covered by the debris coming from Vesuvius.

The entrance to a house. There is obviously a fair amount of restoration work done to these buildings in order to preserve them for future generations, and to show visitors how the houses would have looked. Much has been damaged over the centuries by earlier restorations using the wrong kinds of material, plus climactic factors and tourists (graffiti and taking of souvenirs). The money made from visitors goes towards conservation of the sites (Herculaneum, Pompeii and a few other smaller sites).

A painted wall, showing an arch with birds on top. It's not in a very good state compared to the frescoes we later saw at Pompeii!

Inlay flooring.

More remains of wall decorations.

The House of the Wooden Partition

Some of the houses at the two archaeological sites have names due to special things found within them.

You will see the wooden partitions further down. This house is a large one and has a pool in the atrium with an open bit of roof above. The pool is called an Impluvium and is for collecting rainwater. There are other rooms off this atrium and there was a second floor above.

The open roof called a Compluvium with original carved decorations.

The pyroclastic flows at Herculaneum have, amazingly, preserved wooden objects which were carbonised by the heat.

Below, the wooden partitions (now preserved and covered with glass or plastic to protect them). Also found around the town were such things as ceiling beams, beds, tables and a cradle. A carbonised wooden bed was found in this house.

Outside there was a restaurant, a Roman take-away as it were. Most ordinary Romans did not have kitchens in their small houses, going out to get food prepared by other people. Only the rich had their own kitchens. The prepared food was stored in these large terracotta pots.

Changing room in the Womens' Baths

This is an amazingly preserved building and this room is where the ladies would have changed before going into the rooms with baths. They left their clothes in partitions on the shelf you can see. The mosaic floor is just amazing. 

Look at that octopus!

The House of Neptune and Amphitrite

This was not a paricularly large house, but it contains some special things. When you enter into an open atrium there is a marble pool, or impluvium. Straight in front of you is an amazing wall mosaic in another open courtyard. 

This courtyard was a small Triclinium or open air dining room. This amazing mosaic features the sea god Neptune and his wife, Amphitrite. Do click on the photos to view them larger as they come up much sharper and you will see much more detail.

Nymphaeum - a Roman water feature. The tank that contained the water would have been above the niche.

Close up you can see the remains of shell decorations around the arch.

The Boat Sheds

Originally there were no bodies found at Herculaneum so it was assumed that people had managed to escape. Then when excavations started around this lower area near the sea, remains were found. (The sea now is much further away). Some 300 bodies were found inside the boat sheds. It was thought they had come here to try to escape by boat but the intense heat from a pyroclastic flow had got to them first.  

The skeletons in the photo are not real, models have been made to evoke the awfulness of the situation for the townfolk.

You can see how far down the boat sheds were - they are the arches at the bottom of the image.

Try as we might, we could not find our way down there. There was a main ramp going down from this level, but it was roped off. People were walking around down there but we had no map of the site and after walking around for a few hours we decided to not bother trying again. 

It was also horribly humid both here and at Pompeii.  We are so used to dry heat that one forgets just how tiring humidity is.

Another view of the culprit, Vesuvius!

Our journey from Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli to Sperlonga, then Herculaneum and Pompeii.

P.S. We just watched a really interesting documentary about Vesuvius last night which gave further insight into the volcanic blast and the preservation of bodies. Apparently this was first shown in 2010 but programmes about Pompeii seem to be quite popular in the last few years - in fact this is why we were interested enough to go and visit ourselves! The programme is available on Youtube here. It's called 'Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town' presented by Mary Beard.