V.7.2 Pompeii. Unexcavated doorway, now behind modern brick wall.

Only the southern street fronts of the insula were excavated in 1907-8.

According to CTP, there is a discrepancy in the number of doorways, not made any easier to correct by the new modern brick walling.

CTP said that according to the plan by Eschebach in 1969, there were six entrances marked, but his number 2 doorway was now missing behind the restored brick wall.  This should now leave five entrances.

There is however written documentation that Mau and Spano described seven entrances on this south front. Then Spano mentioned eight entrances.

If V.7.6 is known as the House of Paris because of the graffiti on its façade, and we can see another doorway on the east side of it, that doorway should be V.7.7.

If V.7.6 and V.7.7 are accounted for, there must be two doorways V.7.2 and V.7.3, perhaps also even V.7.4, behind the modern brick wall.

See Van der Poel, H. B., 1986. Corpus Topographicum Pompeianum, Part IIIA. Austin: University of Texas. (p.82).

The doorways will remain a mystery until the rest of the insula is brought to light again.

V.7 Pompeii, on left. Vicolo delle Nozze d’Argento, looking east from V.2.f, on right.

V.7 Pompeii. May 2006. Blocked entrance? (2 and 3 must be behind this wall, perhaps even 4).

According to NdS –

“The facing wall, the north wall (of the vicolo), offers in various ways a better decoration.

In the first section to the left, a high zoccolo covered with signinum and the usual white plaster at the top, with in the middle, a doorway which looks like the entrance to a house, followed, on the right, by a window.

Then comes a second doorway, entrance of a dwelling, tapered at the top, and with high zoccolo of signinum, divided into alternating squares with yellow horizontal and vertical bands and white edgings. To the left of the doorway, a window and another smaller one on the right.

It is followed by a third tapered doorway, which is also the same entrance to a house, with the left side wall unadorned and the right one covered in rough white plaster, in which a window opened preserving the iron grating and the imprint of the wooden panel outside.

After this window, the wall forms a slight projection, and, covered with raw plaster, was interrupted by a large workshop doorway, followed by another tapered narrower one, and then a third.

After the latter, a fourth doorway is seen, which forms the entrance doorway of a house, which appears to be first-rate.

It was tapered and had a high black zoccolo at its sides, divided into squares by red bands and white lines.

On the left a square window, above the zoccolo, and the hint of a smaller second window to the right, in the zoccolo.

Encrusted in the pavement, at the described facade, were pieces of marble set into the mortar.”

(La parete opposta, settentrionale, offre in vari tratti una decorazione migliore.

Nel primo tratto a sinistra, un alto zoccolo rivestito di signino e il solito intonaco bianchiccio in alto con in mezzo un vano che pare l’ingresso di un casa, al quale segue, a destra, un finestrino.

Viene poi un secondo vano, ingresso d’abitazione, rastremato in alto, e con alto zoccolo di signino, scompartito in riquadrature alternate con fascie orizzontali e verticali gialle e filettature bianche.

A sinistra del vano un finestrino e un altro piu piccolino a destra.

Segue un terzo vano, rastremato anche esso e del pari ingresso di una casa, con la parete laterale di sinistra disadorna e quella di destra rivestita d’intonaco bianco grezzo, nella quale si apre una finestra conservante la grata di ferro e l’impronta della mostra di legno all’esterno.

Dopo questa finestra la parete forma una lieve avancorpo, e, rivestita d’intonaco grezzo, era interrotta da un largo vano di bottega, al quale ne segue un altro piu stretto, rastremato, e cosi pure un terzo.

Vien dopo quest’ultimo un quarto vano, che forma l’ingresso di una casa, che par di prim’ordine. Esso era rastremato ed ha ai lati un alto zoccolo nero, diviso in riquadrature mediante fascette rosse e linee bianche.

A sinistra un finestrino quadrato, al di sopra dello zoccolo, e l’accenno di un secondo a destra, piu piccolo, nello zoccolo. Nel marciapiede, in corrispondenza della descritta facciata, dei pezzetti  di marmo incrostati nella malta.)

See Notizie degli Scavi, 1910, (p.378).

V.7 Pompeii. October 2023. Blocked entrance? (either 2 or 3). Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.

V.7 Pompeii. May 2006. Blocked entrance? (either 2 or 3)

V.7 Pompeii. May 2006. Blocked entrance ramp? or even another entrance.