The Granai del Foro

The Forum was the real heart of daily life in Pompeii.

All the main public buildings for the administration of the city and justice, management of business, trade, and the city’s main places of worship were arranged around the Forum.

Originally the Forum was a simple open area of more or less regular shape, of earthen floor. 

The Sanctuary of Apollo was on the western side and opposite there was a row of shops. The Forum was extensively modified between the third and second centuries BC, the shape was straightened up, surrounded by porticoes, and paved with tuff slabs. 

The axis of the square became the façade of the Temple of Jupiter, aligned with Vesuvius.

The Granai del Foro, the Forum’s granaries, were located  on the west side, with eight openings separated by brick pillars. This was a fruit and vegetable market.

Today this is the most important store of findings for the Archaeological Park, with over 9,000 finds from the excavations conducted in Pompeii and its territory since the end of the 1800s: pottery used in daily activities such as pots and pans, jugs and bottles, amphorae (the large containers used to transport oil, wine and fish sauces all over the Mediterranean), but also marble furnishings.

Soon the Granai will become a new exhibition venue.

Here it will be possible not only to retrace the history of the Forum from its origins but also to learn about production activities and explore the countless objects found in this gallery of material culture.