During an excavation of a former cinema in the northern Italian city of Verona, the renovation team made a valuable and surprising discovery.
Beneath the abandoned Astra Teatro, which is currently undergoing renovation after lying unused for more than two decades, was the hiding place of an ancient Roman building that dates all the way back to the second century.
Verona’s archaeological superintendent says that the building’s “magnificent, frescoed walls evoke a miniature Pompeii.”
More research is needed to determine what the building was originally used for, but archaeologists say that it seems to have survived a fire, which is evident from the collapsed roof as well as pieces of charred wooden furniture that were found at the site.
Despite the damage, researchers say “The environment was preserved intact, with the magnificent colors of the frescoed walls dating back to the second century.”
The ancient building is found just over a year after a perfectly preserved Roman mosaic floor was discovered close to Verona. The floor, comprised of multicolored tiles, was beneath a row of vines. Experts believe that they belong to the remains of a Roman villa dating back to the third century that had been excavated about a century beforehand.
