Lupanar of Pompeii
The stone beds are smaller than you expect — each one a masonry slab barely wide enough for a single person, set into the wall of a room not much larger than a modern bathroom. This is the Lupanar, the only purpose-built brothel definitively identified in ancient Pompeii, and standing inside it has a way of collapsing the distance between then and now.
Above each doorway, painted frescoes still show the services on offer. On the walls, scratched in Latin, are more than 120 pieces of graffiti — worker names, prices (two to sixteen asses, depending), and the ordinary record of ordinary transactions. The names Myrthe, Successa, and Felix appear among them.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who come back tend to say the same thing: go first thing in the morning, before the tour groups arrive at the narrow entrance. The rooms on the ground floor fill fast. Spend a moment with the graffiti rather than the frescoes — it's the handwriting on the walls, not the paintings, that stays with you.
The story behind Lupanar of Pompeii
The building dates to the final decades of Pompeii before Vesuvius buried the city in 79 CE — a plaster cast of a coin impression found in one room suggests construction or renovation as late as 72 CE. Excavators reached it in stages through the 1850s and 1860s, with the most significant work completed in 1862.
The ten rooms — five on each floor — were almost certainly staffed by enslaved women, most from Greece or the Near East. The upper floor appears to have offered slightly better conditions, possibly for higher-paying clients. The building sits at the intersection of two streets, with a double entrance designed to let people arrive and leave by different doors.
Good to know
Take the Circumvesuviana train to Pompeii Scavi — the site entrance is about 330 feet away. Timed entry slots are required from mid-March through mid-October; book ahead. The Lupanar entrance is narrow and gets congested quickly — aim for early morning or the lunch lull. Not wheelchair accessible.
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What travellers say about Lupanar of Pompeii
Great to Experience, audlt olace from Ancient times with winderful high quality Frescos. 😉☺️🇮🇹🌺
I arrived in the early afternoon after a long, tiring journey and made my way straight to the Lupanar in search of a little relaxation. To their credit, the establishment is remarkably user-friendly, even for a traveler who doesn’t speak a word of the local language. The illustrated menu is very thorough. Clear, efficient, and leaves little to the imagination. Unfortunately, that’s about where the positives end. The beds, for whatever reason, are made entirely of stone. After miles on the road, this feels less like luxury and more like a punishment handed down by the gods. But the real disappointment? Not a single worker in sight. The place was open, the frescoes were inviting me in, and yet there was nothing. No service, no greeting, not even the courtesy of being ignored properly. Its safe to say, the only thing hard here were the beds. Frustrated, sore, and deeply confused, I decided to cut my losses and head home. All in all, a promising concept undermined by shocking execution. Would not recommend unless you enjoy hard surfaces and profound disappointment.
Great place, lots of history and the stories from the tour guide of people who used to live in this town were amazing. I would recommend going with a tour guide for this as there is information for you to read, however, they have their own twist on it with stories from before the volcano erupted.
Nothing special. Ruins like all the others, except this one used to trade in pleasure instead of wine jugs. Now it's just a few crumbling rooms with some small cheeky wall scenes – and that’s all about it. Still, the queues outside can be absurd. Unless you're really into ancient brothels, you’re not missing much. We luckily slipped in ahead – all in the name of historical research, of course. muhehehe :)
Waited years to see this place. Very interesting but because we were on an organised tour with a guide I had to walk at her pace which was too fast resulting in me not being able to take everything in . Also the narrow streets were rammed with people and at some locations staff were constantly moving you on. Apparently 29,000 people once visited the site in one day.
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