The House of the First Cenaculum faces Via dell’Abbondanza and is one of the most revealing examples of multi-storey architecture in ancient Pompeii.
The façade was uncovered in 1912 during excavations directed by Vittorio Spinazzola. The discovery immediately attracted attention because a spacious upper-floor room survived, opening towards the street through a colonnaded loggia built of Nocera tuff blocks.
The Latin term cenaculum originally denoted a dining room, but in the Roman world it also came to refer to rooms and dwellings on upper floors. Here, the colonnade allowed the upper storey to look directly onto the street, preserving an aspect of urban architecture that rarely survives in excavation.
The spaces corresponding to doorways 1 and 2 were fully explored by archaeologists. At doorway 2, the impression of the staircase leading to the upper floor was identified and a cast could be made.
Shortly after the discovery of the first cenaculum, a second building with a similar architectural arrangement was uncovered immediately to the east. It is now known as the House of the Second Cenaculum. Together, the two complexes show that Via dell’Abbondanza was defined not only by the façades of ground-floor houses and shops, but also by balconies, loggias and upper-storey rooms.
Recent research in the Insula of the Chaste Lovers is steadily improving our understanding of the changes these buildings underwent between the late third century BC and the eruption of AD 79.
