Pompejanum

The Pompejanum is a full-scale reconstruction of a Roman villa from ancient Pompeii, built on a terrace overlooking the Main river between 1840 and 1850 on the orders of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. It was designed by Friedrich von Gärtner based on the House of Castor and Pollux in Pompeii, incorporating authentic Roman floor plans, fresco painting techniques, and original artefacts brought from Italy.

The interior is furnished with Roman furniture, mosaics, and decorative objects, and the wall paintings — many modelled directly on Pompeian originals — are among the best examples of 19th-century historicist decoration in Germany. The building suffered damage in World War II but has been restored. It sits just downriver from Johannisburg Palace and can be combined with a palace visit in a morning. Open April to October.

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Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, who later became Ludwig I, commissioned this full-scale replica of a Pompeian house in 1840 after becoming fascinated with the excavations at Pompeii. He had the building constructed on a terrace above the Rhine valley so it could be seen from miles around — an ancient Roman house transplanted to a German hillside, which was exactly the kind of eccentric royal gesture that defined 19th-century Bavaria.

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