The
Domus Aurea (Golden House), Rome (A.D. 64-68 and
possibly later), was built or begun by Nero after
the great fire in A.D. 64. It was less a palace
than a series of pavilions and a long wing comprising
living and reception rooms, all set in a vast
landscaped park with an artificial lake in its
centre where the Colosseum now stands. Most of
it has largely disappeared. The main architectural
interest lies in the wing just referred to, known
as the Esquiline wing, which stood a little to
the north of the lake and was subsequently built
over to form part of the enclosure of the Baths
of Trajan. It most resembled the country and seaside
portico villas of Campagna, and was open to the
views of and beyond the lake. The more westerly
part, which was certainly of Nero's time, also
had a peristyle behind the façade. In the
centre, the façade was set back, following
three sides and two half-sides of an octagon.
To the right of this was the less conventionally
planned eastern part, which contained the feature
of greatest importance and originality. This was
an octagonal hall roofed by a concrete dome, 14.7
m (50 ft) across the corners, and open on all
sides to the garden or to surrounding smaller
rooms-as far as is known the first appearance
in a building of this kind of a new concept of
interior space which was to come increasingly
to the fore over the next half-century.
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