Saturday, 3 October 2026

Porphyry bowl from Nero's Golden Palace in the rotunda of a Vatican museum

In a round hall with red niches and statues, visitors stand near a huge dark red porphyry bowl on a mosaic floor.

Porphyry bowl from Nero's Golden House, with a circumference of 13 metres. It is now in the Michelangelo Simonetti rotunda of the Belvedere Palace in the Vatican, home to the Museo Pio-Clementino (the museum of Clement XIV and Pius VI)

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