Entering a building

Sometimes the gods were present directly behind the facade. In the House of the Painted Vaults a travertine staircase leads to the upper floors, usually regarded as a hotel. Above the door of the stairwell was a head of a female deity that has disappeared during the Second World War. The place of attachment can still be seen. But there was another religious welcome for the hotel guests. Opposite the door, on a landing halfway up the stairs, is a large niche or alcove. On the sides, back and lintel are remains of a thin layer of plaster and of a thick superimposed layer. On the latter layer, in the corners, are remains of paint: dark-red bands followed by light-red lines. Against the back stands a masonry altar with a bowl-shaped depression in the top (diameter 0.28, depth 0.10). On the back of the niche deities may have been painted, sacrifices were presumably performed by the caretaker of the hotel.

Staircase leading to the first upper floor in the House of the Painted Vaults.
Above the door was a protome (lost), on the landing is a niche with an altar.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The landing with a niche with an altar, seen from above.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

Some guests may have brought statuettes of their own deities, to place in the guest bedroom. Apuleius, in a defense speech written in 158-159 AD, says:

Nam morem mihi habeo, quoquo eam, simulacrum alicuius dei inter libellos conditum gestare eique diebus festis ture et mero et aliquando victima supplicare.	I have the habit, wherever I go, to carry with me the image of some god kept among my books and to pray to the god on feast days with offerings of incense and wine and sometimes a beast for sacrifice.
Apuleius, Apologia 63.

In the lateral walls of the vestibule of the Horrea Epagathiana et Epaphroditiana are niches with an aedicula-facade. Two more, identical niches are in the courtyard, flanking the entrance of a room opposite the vestibule. The facade and the polychrome interior of the niches are made of terracotta, limestone and pumice. Again there was a double religious welcome for those entering the building: in and opposite the vestibule. There has been speculation that two of the niches contained statues of Fortuna (in Greek Agathe Tuche) and Venus (Aphrodite), in view of the names of the two owners of the warehouse, which can be read above the entrance of the vestibule: Epagathus and Epaphroditus.

The two niches in the vestibule of the Horrea Epagathiana, seen from the courtyard.
Photos: Jan Theo Bakker.

The two niches in the courtyard of the Horrea Epagathiana.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

In the vestibule of the House of Hercules a small niche for a statuette has been preserved. There was a protruding shelf, the front part of which has broken off. Unfortunately the colours on the white paint on the back have disappeared. This time there is no second religious welcome in the courtyard. Instead, a communal water basin is located opposite the vestibule.

The courtyard of the House of Hercules, seen through the vestibule.
The niche is in the yellow right wall. Photo: Daniel González Acuña.

The niche in the vestibule of the House of Hercules.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

In the Great Warehouse a niche was installed in an entrance corridor running along the north side of the building. Only the lower part has been preserved. The niche was flanked by brick pilasters, so it had an aedicula-facade. A polychrome effect was achieved by using yellow bricks in a red wall (in the bases of the pilasters is one red brick). Between the yellow bricks are very thin mortar layers. Obviously stucco was not applied. The position of the niche is enigmatic: there is nothing that makes the place special, the niche is merely between two rooms in which grain was stored.

The niche in the corridor of the Great Warehouse.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

A mosaic in the vestibule of the House of Jupiter the Thunderer has a depiction of an apotropaic phallus, averting evil from the house and ensuring a prosperous life for the inhabitants. On the other side of the building, opposite the vestibule, are three niches. They were created in a late blocking of a passage behind the atrium. The two lateral niches are rectangular. In front of the the central, semicircular niche is a masonry podium. On top stands a marble base with metal pegs to support a statue. In the 1980's a small part of the marble plinth of the statue was still on top of the base.

View through the vestibule of the House of Jupiter the Thunderer, with an apotropaic phallus.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The three niches in the rear part of the House of Jupiter the Thunderer. The niches are in a late blocking of opus vittatum.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

In the neighbouring building, the House of the Mosaic Niche, a pseudo-aedicula was placed against the back wall of a room opposite the vestibule, behind the atrium. In the arch and on the back are remains of mortar with an inlay. In the niche is a cast of a female statue found on the street in front of the building.

View through the atrium towards the pseudo-aedicula.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

Detail of the pseudo-aedicula.
Photo: Klaus Heese.

In the lower part of the arch is a horizontal row of round pieces of limestone, painted red, above that a horizontal band made of small pieces of blue glass-paste, above that a horizontal row of imprints, imitating shells, painted red. On the lower part of the back are incised lines creating bands and panels, with two horizontal rows of round pieces of blue glass-paste, the pieces of the upper row set in shells.

Drawing of the niche. Scavi di Ostia IV, fig. 73.