At the foot of Vesuvius, some fifteen kilometres from Pompeii, lies a smaller and far more intact Roman town. In the year 79 it was not buried by a rain of pumice but by avalanches of scorching gas and volcanic debris, which sealed it under some twenty metres of rock and turned wood, food and even books into charcoal. Twelve stops between the viewpoint over the dig, the beach arches where hundreds of skeletons were found, the terrace of the town's benefactor, the baths by the sea, the rippled mosaic atrium, the house of the deer, the two-thousand-year-old wooden screen, the forum baths, the Neptune mosaic, the House of the Bicentenary, the great palaestra and the villa whose library is now being read with X-rays. Approximate audio duration: 18 minutes.
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Herculano: la ciudad que Pompeya eclipsó, mejor conservada y menos visitada
Al pie del Vesubio, a unos quince kilómetros de Pompeya, hay una ciudad romana más chica y mucho más intacta. En el año 79 no la cubrió una lluvia de piedra pómez sino avalanchas de gas y material volcánico ardiente, que la sellaron bajo unos veinte metros de roca y carbonizaron la madera, la comida y hasta los libros. Doce paradas entre el mirador sobre la excavación, los arcos de la playa donde aparecieron cientos de esqueletos, la terraza del benefactor de la ciudad, las termas junto al mar, el atrio de mosaico ondulado, la casa de los ciervos, la mampara de madera de dos mil años, las termas del foro, el mosaico de Neptuno, la casa del Bicentenario, la gran palestra y la villa de la biblioteca que hoy se lee con rayos X. Duración aproximada de audio: 18 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~18 min of audio · 1.32 km on foot (~20 min walking) · about 45 min in total
You are standing on the entrance ramp, looking down. The Roman streets and roofs lie many metres below your feet. And right at the edge of the dig, pressed up against it, stand the buildings of the modern town.
Look at the grey wall of rock surrounding the ruins. That is the material that fell on Herculaneum in the year 79. In places it is around twenty metres thick.
It is often said that Herculaneum was buried by mud. That is not quite right. It was entombed by successive currents of scorching gas and ash that rushed down from Vesuvius at tremendous speed, and that over time hardened into s…
2
The Arches on the Beach
You are facing a row of arches opening at the base of the town. Here, in the year 79, the waves broke. Today the sea is hundreds of metres away, because the eruption pushed the coastline outwards.
These vaults were storerooms by the beach, for boats and fishing gear. In more than two centuries of excavation, very few bodies turned up inside the houses. So it was believed that almost all the inhabitants had managed to flee.
From 1980 onwards, as this ancient beach was dug out, the answer emerged. Inside the arches and on the sand lay skeletons: more than three hundred people in all. Men, wome…
3
The Benefactor's Terrace
You have climbed onto a terrace that looks towards where the sea once was. In the centre stands a marble altar and, beside it, the statue of a man in a toga. This is Marcus Nonius Balbus, the most powerful citizen of Herculaneum.
Balbus lived in the time of Augustus. He was praetor and proconsul of Crete and Cyrene, and he spent his fortune on his town: one inscription says he paid for the basilica, the gates and the wall.
Herculaneum thanked him by filling its streets with statues of him and his family. On the altar, an inscription records the honours the town council granted him after his …
4
The Baths by the Sea
You are beside the Suburban Baths, a public bathhouse built outside the walls, almost on the beach. It is one of the best-preserved Roman bath complexes anywhere.
Because it lay so low and so deeply buried, its rooms survived almost whole: vaults, marble floors, benches, pools. The walls still hold stucco reliefs and paintings.
In the vestibule, a marble head of Apollo poured water into a basin. It was the first thing bathers saw as they came in, before moving on to the warm and hot rooms.
Look at the wood, too. Remains of doors survived here, turned to charcoal by the heat but still in pla…
5
The Floor That Ripples
You have entered the town from its southern edge. You are in the House of the Mosaic Atrium. Look at the atrium floor: a chequerboard of black and white tesserae.
Notice that it is not flat. It ripples like a crumpled rug. The enormous weight of the volcanic material that fell on it sank the floor and warped it.
This house stood on the side of the town facing the sea. Beyond the atrium, a garden ringed with galleries led to a terrace with rooms opening onto the Bay of Naples.
It was a wealthy family's home, and they wanted what any buyer would want today: the view. Herculaneum had only a fe…
6
The House of the Deer
You are in the House of the Deer, another residence that looked out over the bay. Its name comes from two marble sculptures found in the garden: deer cornered by hunting dogs.
The same garden yielded a far less solemn statue: Hercules, drunk, relieving himself. And a satyr with a wineskin. These were pieces meant to amuse the guests.
The joke had a point here. According to ancient tradition, Hercules had founded the town, and its name comes from him: Herculaneum.
Look at how the house is laid out. A large dining room opened onto the garden, surrounded by an enclosed gallery with windows. At…
7
The Wooden Partition
You are in front of the House of the Wooden Partition. Look at the facade first: it is one of the most complete in the town, with its upper floor still standing.
Now step into the atrium and look to the back. There is a wooden screen with folding doors, black and charred, but still in place. It is almost two thousand years old.
It separated the atrium, where visitors were received, from the master's study. It could be opened or closed as the occasion required, like a modern sliding door.
That it exists at all comes down to what makes Herculaneum unique. The glowing cloud charred the wood wi…
8
The Central Baths
You are in the Forum Baths, the central public baths of Herculaneum. They were built towards the end of the first century BC and had two separate sections: one for men and one for women.
Step into the women's changing room. Look at the floor: a black and white mosaic of a triton surrounded by sea creatures. Benches line the walls and, above them, the shelves where clothes were left.
The route was always the same: changing room, warm room, hot room. Heat came from a furnace that warmed the air beneath the floors, which rested on small brick stacks.
In the men's section, the cold bath is a ro…
9
Neptune and the Untouched Shop
You are in the House of Neptune and Amphitrite. Cross the atrium to the small open-air dining room at the back. On the wall glows a glass-paste mosaic of the two sea gods, standing side by side.
Look at the colours: blues, greens, golds, untouched after almost two thousand years. Beside it is a fountain clad in mosaic, with hunting scenes and borders of seashells.
This was the most luxurious corner of a rather small house. The dining room was designed for summer, with water from the fountain cooling the dinner.
Now go back out to the street and look at the shop in the front of the same hous…
10
The House of the Bicentenary
You are on the Decumanus Maximus, the main street of Herculaneum, in front of the House of the Bicentenary. It was discovered in 1938, two hundred years after the Bourbons began digging. Hence its name.
It is one of the largest houses in the town. Look at the main reception room at the back of the atrium: its walls carry frescoes of mythological scenes, among them Daedalus and Pasiphae.
Upstairs, in a plain room, there is a cross-shaped mark on the wall above a wooden cabinet. When it was found, some thought it was one of the earliest Christian crosses. Today many scholars doubt it: it may s…
11
The Great Palaestra
You are in the Palaestra, the great sports ground of Herculaneum. It was a huge courtyard surrounded by porticoes, where young men trained and the town held games and gatherings.
In the centre was a cross-shaped pool. And in the middle of it, a bronze fountain: a five-headed serpent coiled around a tree, spouting water from its mouths. It is the Hydra, the monster Hercules defeated.
Look towards the edges. Much of the Palaestra is still buried beneath the modern town. The pool was partly explored through tunnels, as in the days of the Bourbons.
The same goes for all of Herculaneum. Only par…
12
The Library Read with X-Rays
You are on the outskirts of ancient Herculaneum, beside the Villa of the Papyri. Almost all of it is still buried. Only part was excavated in the open air in the 1990s, and it is generally not open to the public.
The villa stretched for some two hundred and fifty metres along the sea. Between 1750 and 1765 it was explored through tunnels, directed by the Swiss engineer Karl Weber. Dozens of bronzes and marbles came out of it, and they are now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.
In 1752 some black objects turned up that looked like charred logs. They were papyrus scrolls: the onl…
How long does the "Herculaneum: the Town Pompeii Overshadowed, Better Preserved and Less Visited" audio tour take?
It has about 18 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 1.32 km walking route (~20 min on foot). Plan roughly 45 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "A Town at the Bottom of a Pit" (coordinates 40.8066, 14.3485). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Herculaneum and pick "Herculaneum: the Town Pompeii Overshadowed, Better Preserved and Less Visited". No account required to start.
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No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian
