There is a building on the upper bank of the River Main in Aschaffenburg, not far from the Johannisburg Palace, that stands out in its surroundings due to its Mediterranean-looking and eye-catching, yet at the same time quite simple, architecture. The Pompejanum is the replica of a Roman villa, as we know them from the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum near Mount Vesuvius.
The rooms in the house are situated around a central atrium, an open inner courtyard. In addition to the bedrooms and the dining room on the ground floor there are also an imposing reception room, the kitchen, a toilet and numerous rooms for the staff, which generally consisted of slaves. On the upper floor were the living rooms and bedrooms of the family that owned the villa.
The Pompejanum was built by order of Ludwig I between 1840 and 1850 modelled on the Casa dei Dioscuri in Pompeii. It was restored following the damage during the 2nd World War and opened to the public in 1994.
The ancient works of art exhibited here on a permanent basis originate for the most part from the State Collections of Antiquities and the Glyptothek in Munich, which co-oversee the Pompejanum as a branch museum. Since 2009 the Collections of Antiquities and the Glyptothek have also presented special exhibitions that change every year.