The Surgeon’s House (Casa del Chirurgo) is an archaeological park opened to the public, comprising more than 700 square meters dedicated to telling 2000 years of the city’s history: from Roman Times to Middle Ages. It was discovered in 1989, during some street furniture works.
The excavation – conducted by the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Emilia Romagna in collaboration with the Municipal Museums of Rimini – has revealed more than 700 square meters dedicated to telling 2000 years of the city’s history.
The most important finding was that of a habitation of imperial times (that is today called the domus “of the surgeon” owing to the profession of its last owner) which, as revealed by the over 150 surgical instruments brought to light, also included a taberna medica (doctor’s surgery). Today, this “treasure” is exposed at the City Museum.
Destroyed by a fire in the middle of the third century that developed on the heels of the first barbarian invasions, the domus revealed, among the wreckage of the collapse, structures, mosaics, plasterwork and furnishings that offer a “photograph” of life in ancient Rimini.
Among the most important areas, there’s the triclinium, decorated with a mosaic with a large vase and, on the walls, with frescoes and a refined glass panel depicting fish on the sea floor. In the taberna medica was found an elegant polychrome mosaic that served as a pavement and featuring a representation of Orpheus at the center.
The history of the site did not end with the devastating fire. This is demonstrated by the remains of a late-antique palatial residence built in the fifth century on top of the front section of the domus. Later, probably in the seventh century, the western zone was involved in a new construction using poor (wood and mud) and re-used materials. The destruction of this final edifice, in the early Middle Ages, probably gave way to an open area.
The Archeological Section of the City Museum dedicates a special large space to the domus “of the surgeon”: here you can enter the taberna medica, reconstructed on a scale close to that the original.
