One of Rome's oldest surviving houses began receiving visitors in the first days of March 2026 — though most of them will never stand inside it. The House of the Griffins, a more than two-thousand-year-old domus on the Palatine Hill that had been closed to the public for decades, opened for guided tours on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in a format the Archaeological Park has chosen deliberately: small groups, and a livestream that carries each tour to remote audiences, per Reuters in January 2026.
The house takes its name from the painted griffins in its frescoed reception room, decoration that archaeologists count among the finest surviving examples of Second Style Roman wall painting. Because such frescoes are fragile, the park has long kept the doorway shut; the restoration, financed through the European Union's post-pandemic recovery funds, made controlled visits possible. This site follows such openings for what they say about how ancient places are cared for, and the details here rest on the park's announcements and wire reporting rather than on promotional material.
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How do the remote tours work?
Per the park's published schedule, in-person tours run weekly on Tuesdays, in Italian and English, with reservations plus a supplemental ticket on top of ordinary Palatine access. A parallel livestreamed tour broadcasts the same rooms to viewers at home, an experiment in letting fresco-light limits and conservation windows govern who enters, and how many.
Why does the House of the Griffins matter?
The domus dates to the Republican era, the centuries before the emperors, which makes its surviving painted rooms rarer than almost anything else on the hill above the Forum. Its reopening returns a chapter of Roman domestic life — the house, not the palace — to public view for the first time in a generation.
Can travelers see it in 2026?
Yes, with planning. Tickets went on sale February 3, 2026, through the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum's official channels, and Tuesday slots are limited. The livestream option remains the only way to see the griffin room for those who cannot secure a place in the small in-person groups.