The Lupanar is Pompeii’s best-preserved purpose-built brothel — a two-storey building with five rooms on each floor, original stone beds with stone pillows, and explicit frescoes above each door depicting the services available. It is the most visited individual building in the entire archaeological site.
No building in Pompeii generates more visitor anticipation — or more thoughtful reflection after the visit. The Lupanar (from the Latin lupa, a term for a female wolf and a slang word for a prostitute) is a purpose-built brothel in the heart of the ancient city, two blocks from the Forum. It is small — ten rooms, five up and five down — and the waiting queue outside is almost always the longest for any individual building on the site. What you find inside is simultaneously frank and melancholy: stone beds with stone pillow-ledges, walls covered in graffiti left by clients and workers, and above each doorway, a painted panel depicting the particular service offered within.
Top Tickets
# Entry Ticket with Audio Guide
# Guided Tour with an Archaeologist
# 2-Hour Small Group Tour
Table of Contents
History of the Lupanar
Pompeii had at least 25–35 structures that archaeologists believe functioned as brothels — inns with rooms, taverns with back rooms, and private houses with commercial arrangements. The Lupanar on Via dell’Abbondanza is the only purpose-built, dedicated brothel among them: architecturally designed from the ground up for commercial sex, with a ground floor for general clients and an upper floor with a separate street entrance for higher-paying customers.
The building was owned privately and the workers — primarily enslaved women and men from Greece, the eastern Mediterranean, and North Africa — left traces of their own history in the graffiti that covers the walls. Names, prices, crude jokes, and expressions of longing are scratched into the plaster alongside the client graffiti. The graffiti corpus from the Lupanar is one of the most important primary sources for understanding the daily experience of enslaved people in the Roman world.
The Frescoes
Above each of the ten doorways is a painted panel depicting a sexual scene. These were not decorative — they were functional menus, advertising the service available in that room to clients who may not have shared a language with the workers. The fact that each room had its own dedicated panel suggests a degree of specialisation that would have been understood immediately by any Roman client.
The frescoes are painted in the Fourth Pompeian Style — the same style used in the finest houses in the city. Their quality is competent rather than remarkable, which tells us something about the building’s status: this was a commercial establishment, not a showcase of artistic patronage. The survival of the paintings is due to the volcanic ash filling the rooms and sealing the walls.
The Graffiti
More than 120 pieces of graffiti have been recorded in the Lupanar — the highest density of inscriptions in any single building in Pompeii. The graffiti falls into several categories:
- Client records: Names, dates, and brief accounts of encounters.
- Worker notes: Names and sometimes nationalities of the workers — Myrthe, Successa, Felix.
- Prices: Some graffiti record prices paid — typically 2–16 asses, with the standard rate around 2–5 asses (roughly equivalent to the cost of a cheap meal).
- Expressions of feeling: Brief, poignant expressions that make the workers suddenly present across 2,000 years.
Practical Visitor Information
How Long to Allow
The Lupanar is small — allow 10–15 minutes inside. The queue outside often takes longer than the visit itself. Arriving before 10:00 am dramatically reduces the wait. On a guided tour, your guide will manage the queue strategically and provide immediate context that transforms a confusing small building into a complex story.
Is It Appropriate for Children?
Many families choose to skip the Lupanar with children under 10. It is not on the main route and easy to walk past. Older teenagers generally find it one of the most thought-provoking stops on the site. See our guide for families visiting with children for more advice.
Best Time to Visit
The Lupanar queue peaks between 10:30 am and 2:00 pm. Visit before 10:00 am or after 3:00 pm for the shortest wait. Arriving at opening time is by far the most effective strategy.
