Pompeii’s noble houses may have been more vertical than we thought. A new study proposes that the city’s wealthiest families built domestic towers—not unlike those that would later dominate Italian medieval cities—to signal power and prestige.
The hypothesis is presented in the article “The Tower of the House of the Thiasus. A New Research Project for the Documentation and Digital Reconstruction of ‘Lost Pompeii’”, published in the E-Journal of Pompeii Excavations.
Part of a wider digital archaeology initiative, the project aims to virtually reconstruct the upper floors of Pompeian homes, many of which were destroyed in the eruption of 79 AD.
The researchers focused on a monumental staircase found in the House of the Thiasus, which appears to lead to nowhere. They suggest it may have once reached a tower structure, used to survey the city, the bay—and perhaps the stars at night.
This idea resonates with literary and artistic traditions: ancient texts mention towered villas such as Maecenas’s tower, where Emperor Nero supposedly watched Rome burn, while many Pompeian frescoes depict towers as part of elite architecture.
According to the study, these motifs likely reflect real architectural trends, where villas and urban residences mirrored one another. In this view, the towers of Pompeii’s wealthy residents would have been both observatories and status symbols, giving a new dimension to the ancient city’s skyline.