Remains of Emperor Caligula’s property found in construction near the Vatican

Rome has been immersed in numerous urban planning works for months as part of a complex project to be able to receive the millions of pilgrims from all over the world, who are expected to arrive in the Eternal City during the Jubilee 2025.

However, as usual, each excavation on Roman soil brings with it a surprise. The last?, the discovery of remains of a property that could have belonged to Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known as Caligula, the emperor remembered for his extravagances.

The discovery of a portico and a lead pipe inscribed with the emperor’s name have appeared in Rome’s Piazza Piazza, near Vatican City, where workers are working to build an underground passage.

The remains of the emperor’s estate, announced by the Italian Ministry of Culture, are located next to the 2nd century Ancient Rome laundry that was discovered last June.

The portico, formed by columns, was the entrance to a garden that belonged to a building erected between the time of Augustus and Nero and which later passed into the hands of Caligula, who ruled Rome between 37 and 42 AD.

In this enclave, which offers one of the best views of St. Peter’s Basilica, some remains of lead were already found on which the name of Lulia Augusta, Augustus’s second wife, was inscribed.

Archaeologists have also highlighted that the remains are found within the area of ​​the Gardens of Agrippina the Elder, mother of Caligula, so “it is likely that this luxurious residence was inherited first by Germanicus, the emperor’s father, then by his wife and then by Caligula himself.”