What palace complex did Emperor Nero build after the Great Fire of Rome?

The palace complex Emperor Nero built after the Great Fire of Rome was the Domus Aurea, or “Golden House.”

Construction began after the fire of AD 64 and continued until shortly before Nero’s death in AD 68. It was not merely a single residence but an enormous palace and pleasure complex that extended across parts of Rome. Ancient descriptions and surviving remains indicate richly decorated rooms, gardens, artificial landscapes, and lavish materials.

Nero’s successors considered the complex politically embarrassing because it displayed the emperor’s private extravagance on a huge scale. They stripped its marble, precious decoration, and fittings, then buried or built over much of it. Vespasian placed the Colosseum on the site of the palace’s artificial lake, while later emperors constructed the Baths of Titus and Baths of Trajan nearby.

The burial helped preserve the palace’s wall paintings and stucco decoration. Renaissance artists who entered the underground rooms helped inspire the term “grotesque,” derived from their mistaken belief that the rooms were caves, or grotte. The Villa of the Mysteries and Hadrian’s Villa are important Roman sites, but neither was Nero’s post-fire palace.