Full Answer
What is an impluvium in a house?
The impluvium is the sunken part of the atrium in a Greek or Roman house ( domus ). Designed to carry away the rainwater coming through the compluvium of the roof, it is usually made of marble and placed about 30 cm below the floor of the atrium and emptied into a subfloor cistern.
Can the impluvium be challenged and removed?
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. The impluvium is the sunken part of the atrium in a Greek or Roman house ( domus ). Designed to carry away the rainwater coming through the compluvium of the roof, it is usually made of marble and placed about 30 cm below the floor of the atrium and emptied into a subfloor cistern.
What is the meaning of compluvium?
(architecture) A low basin in the center of a household atrium, into which rainwater flowed down from the roof through the compluvium.
What was the purpose of the impluvium in the atrium?
In the centre of the atrium was the impluvium, a rectangular marble tank to catch and hold the waters from the roof. It was the place of ablution—something like the impluvium in a Roman villa—and its sides were lined with ornamental tiles. This was a very usual arrangement in the Atrium of a Roman house with the impluvium in the centre.
What does impluvium mean in English?
: a cistern or tank in the atrium or peristyle of a house of ancient Rome to receive the water falling through the compluvium.
What is the difference between the compluvium and impluvium?
The compluvium allowed light, fresh air, and rain to enter the atrium; the impluvium was necessary to capture any rainwater and channel it to an underground cistern.
What was the impluvium in a large Roman house?
In the center of the atrium was the impluvium, a rectangular pool that collected rainwater through a rectangular opening above, the compluvium. From the impluvium, rainwater traveled through pipes leading to cisterns, underground water storage tanks.
What is a compluvium?
Definition of compluvium : a square opening in the roof of the ancient Roman atrium toward which the roof sloped and through which the rain fell into the impluvium.
What is the impluvium water used for?
The impluvium (pl. impluvia) is a water-catchment pool system meant to capture rain-water flowing from the compluvium, or slanted roof. Often placed "inside", instead of "outside", a building, it is a notable feature in many architectural traditions.
What are the 3 types of Roman villas?
Many villas also had separate bath houses. Floor plans fell into three main categories, the corridor, courtyard, and basilica styles.
What were Roman houses called?
domusWithin the city of ancient Rome, the wealthiest Romans, such as Emperors and noblemen lived in a single storey house, called a domus. These homes were very grand indeed, with marble pillars, statues, mosaics and wall paintings.
What Roman room was the bedroom?
The cubicula or cubicolo is a small room in the Roman house intended as a bedroom, generally flanked by other similar ones and located around the atrium.
What were poor Roman houses made of?
Poor Romans lived in insulae. An insulae consisted of six to eight three-storey apartment blocks, grouped around a central courtyard. The ground floors were used by shops and businesses while the upper floors were rented as living space. Insulae were made of wood and mud brick and often collapsed or caught fire.
What was the Peristylium used for?
The peristylium was an open courtyard within the house; the columns or square pillars surrounding the garden supported a shady roofed portico whose inner walls were often embellished with elaborate wall paintings of landscapes and trompe-l'œil architecture.
What was the Tablinum used for?
The tablinum was the office in a Roman house, the father's centre for business, where he would receive his clients. It was originally the master bedroom, but later became the main office and reception room for the house master.
What does Domus mean in English?
domus, plural domus, private family residence of modest to palatial proportions, found primarily in ancient Rome and Pompeii. In contrast to the insula (q.v.), or tenement block, which housed numerous families, the domus was a single-family dwelling divided into two main parts, atrium and peristyle.
What is a Triclinium in a Roman house?
A triclinium (plural: triclinia) is a formal dining room in a Roman building. The word is adopted from the Greek triklinion (τρικλίνιον)—from tri- (τρι-), "three", and klinē (κλίνη), a sort of couch or rather chaise longue.
What is a Cubiculum in a domus?
A cubiculum (plural cubicula) was a private room in a domus, an ancient Roman house occupied by a high-status family. It usually led directly from the atrium, but in later periods it was sometimes adjacent to the peristyle.
What was the pool in the Roman houses used for?
piscina, in Roman times, an artificial reservoir used for swimming or as a fish pond. During the Middle Ages a piscina was a pool or tank in which fish were stored by monastic communities, for whose members fish was a staple item of diet.
What was the Peristylium used for?
The peristylium was an open courtyard within the house; the columns or square pillars surrounding the garden supported a shady roofed portico whose inner walls were often embellished with elaborate wall paintings of landscapes and trompe-l'œil architecture.
What was the impluvium in the Atrium?
In the centre of the atrium was the impluvium, a rectangular marble tank to catch and hold the waters from the roof. Snnica | Vicente Blasco Ibez. It was the place of ablution—something like the impluvium in a Roman villa—and its sides were lined with ornamental tiles. Some Heroes of Travel | W. H. Davenport Adams.
Why is the word "sinister" Latin?
The word "sinister" is Latin for "left," because left-handed people were often thought of as suspicious, evil, or demonic.
Did the impluvium have windows?
There were no windows, all natural light coming through the impluvium or, in pleasant weather, through the open door.
Where is the impluvium located?
Impluvium in the center of the atrium of a former house, ancient Roman Pompeii, Campania, Italy. The drain into the underground cistern is visible.
What is the impluvium in a Greek house?
The impluvium is the sunken part of the atrium in a Greek or Roman house ( domus ). Designed to carry away the rainwater coming through the compluvium of the roof, it is usually made of marble and placed about 30 cm below the floor of the atrium and emptied into a subfloor cistern.
Is the impluvia porous?
Inspection (without excavation) of impluvia in Paestum, Pompeii and Rome indicated that the pavement surface in the impluvia was porous, or that the non-porous stone tiles were separated by gaps significant enough to allow a substantial quantity of water caught in the basin of the impluvium to filter through the cracks and, beyond, through layers of gravel and sand into a holding chamber below ground. A circular stone opening protected with a puteal (easily visible in one photograph, resembling a chimney pot) allows easy access by bucket and rope to this private, filtered and naturally cooled water supply.
