Colombario di via Olevano Romano, Roma

The Colombario di via Olevano Romano is an ancient Roman funerary monument beside Via Prenestina, at the junction with Via Olevano Romano. Built during the late first century before Christ and the early first century after Christ, it served as a burial place into the latter half of that era’s first century. Its small rectangular chamber measures about three and three-quarter by four and two-thirds metres, reached by a stairway along the north wall.

A barrel vault once roofed the room, whose walls carried painted panels and floral designs. When the floor was raised, fresh plaster brought geometric decoration. Traces of those layers survive with Latin inscriptions. Above a niche, a husband’s elegiac verse mourns his wife, Iunia Formosa.