Domus del Chirurgo

Rimini's Surgeon’s House is a Roman domus beneath Piazza Ferrari, preserved with mosaics, frescoes and a large collection of surgical instruments from the second century AD.

Why it matters

Excavation uncovered more than 150 iron and bronze medical instruments in a room interpreted as a doctor's workspace. The house, probably owned by a physician named Eutyches, offers unusually direct evidence of medical practice in Roman Ariminum. Its destruction by fire in the later third century preserved the objects and the domestic setting in which they were used.

What to notice

The triclinium has a mosaic with a large vase and a glass panel depicting fish. The surgical instruments include tools for treating bone trauma and war wounds, together with mortars used to prepare medicines. Later layers above the house include a fifth- or sixth-century residence with geometric mosaics and heating, burials and a seventh-century structure, revealing successive phases of life on the site.

Context and history

The domus was built in the second half of the second century AD on a site inhabited since the Republican period. Fire destroyed it during the later third century. Excavations began in 1989 and continued until 2007, uncovering the house and its medical collection. The site was opened to the public in 2007 beneath a glass cover, and related finds and interpretation form part of the Museo della Città's archaeological collections.