Pompeji

Pompeji is the German name for the ancient Roman city located near Naples in the Campania region of southern Italy. The city stood on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius and developed into a prosperous urban center with temples, a forum, baths, theatres, and a network of streets and houses. It is commonly associated with the broader urban culture of Roman Italy rather than a single Roman era.

The city is believed to have been founded in the 7th or 6th century BCE by Oscan-speaking peoples and later became a Roman municipium. Its architecture and art—frescoes, mosaics, and well-preserved domestic interiors—offer a detailed record of daily life, work, religion, and social structure in a Roman town.

On August 24, 79 CE, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius covered Pompeji under several meters of ash and pumice, burying the city and preserving streets, buildings, and contents. For centuries it was largely forgotten, until widespread excavations began in the 18th century. In the 19th century, Giuseppe Fiorelli introduced systematic excavation methods and plaster casts to reproduce the shapes of people who perished, providing poignant insights into life on the day of the disaster. Ongoing conservation and study have continued to reveal domestic, commercial, and public life.

Pompeji was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997 as part of the Archaeological Areas of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata. Today the site, managed as the Parco Archeologico di Pompei, attracts millions of visitors and remains a key source for understanding ancient Roman urbanism and daily life.