| class="googleright"> | | | | independent houses, but there were also important |
| While the Forum, the baths, the theatres , the | | | | residences such as the House of the Faun which |
| amphitheatres and the inns were the centre of the | | | | occupied a whole block. |
| Romansâ intense municipal life, the domus, i.e. | | | | Generally speaking, the residential buildings in Pompeii |
| the house, was looked upon as a | | | | are one-family houses with no upper floor and are |
| ârefugeâ and the heart of the | | | | completely âsealed offâ from the |
| familyâs private life. The town plan of Pompeii | | | | surroundings. Their rooms are arranged in a hierarchical |
| is characterized by a web of streets which cross one | | | | pattern round a central courtyard called the atrium. The |
| another to form a number of blocks called insulae. The | | | | house was lit through an opening on the roof of the |
| houses were built on these insulae and the area | | | | atrium called complivium. |
| corresponding to one insula usually comprised several | | | | |