After the fire of Rome in 64 A.D., which destroyed much of the city centre, Emperor Nero had a new imperial residence built stretching from the Palatine Hill to the Opian Hill and part of the Caelian Hill, which went down in history as the Domus Aurea because of its splendor. Designed by architects Severus and Celeris and decorated by a certain Fabullus or Famulus, the palace consisted of a series of pavilions separated by gardens, woods and an artificial lake, located in the valley where the Colosseum stands today.
The main nucleus of the palace was located on the Palatine and Opian hills and was famous for the magnificence of its decoration. The huge complex comprised many banquet halls, including the famous coenatio rotunda, a large octagonal hall with a pavilion vault that, according to Suetonius, rotated on itself day and night, and an enormous vestibule that housed the colossal statue of the emperor in the guise of the Sun God.
The rooms of the main core of the Domus Aurea are now dark and gloomy, but originally light was the predominant feature when all the rooms were open to the porch that offered a view of the valley with its artificial lake and surrounding gardens. After Nero’s death, his successors erased all traces of the emperor and his palace, stripping the luxurious halls of their coverings and sculptures, filling them with earth up to the vaults and using them as foundations for other buildings, which were only discovered almost by chance during the Renaissance.
