This is the first house that has been excavated since 1973. Covering an area of 975 m² (23.50 X 41.50 meters), peripheral walls, which were in different states of preservation, appeared between 0.45 m and 1.80 m and up to 2.50 m under the ground of the gardens.                                                                                                                             3D-Simulation of the House with Porticoes Portiques                  Above the foundations, the elevation is composed of small pieces of  regular shape.   The walls are generally made of a mortar-bound stone or of a mortar  base, in which wooden posts are anchored whose intervals are filled with  mud bricks or rough masonry. The elevation of the walls at Clos de la Lombarde rarely exceeds a few  centimeters. Before the excavations, nothing was above the ground.  For floor coverings of the "House of Génie", various material techniques  were used, depending on the quality and function of the rooms:  • Earth floor; • Antique concrete (mixture of lime, sand and aggregates); • Concrete with inlay of small marble fragments, or cubes (or tesserae) of mosaic; • Terracotta briquettes of rectangular shape arranged in spike (opus spicatum) placed against each other; • Mosaic pavement; • Terrazzo with inlays and mosaic border. These different types of soils provide us with information about the function and quality of the rooms. All the rooms in the house were painted, but important frescoed decorations were only found in the northern half of the domus. With a few exceptions, the  remnants of these frescoes  were found only in  fragments, detached from  the walls or ceilings and  mixed with layers of  demolition materials.  Among the identified pieces  is the lounge (oecus) which  opened to one of the main  axes of the peristyle  surrounding the garden, the  triclinium (dining room), and  the tablinum (reception  room) connected to the  atrium sector.   The fully excavated House of Arcades is quite well known by its plan which compares with the houses of Italian tradition as can be seen in POMPEII and HERCULANEUM. The different rooms are centered around two open spaces: • In the building block to the east, an axis is formed by the corridor of the main entrance, the atrium and its impluvium (rain water basin) and the tablinum; • A peristyle garden to the west, perpendicular to the atrium, is embellished with a well and two ponds, one circular, the other square. The residential rooms occupy the north wing of the house which most likely also had an upstairs. The more modest or utilitarian rooms were grouped in the south wing. The painted decorations, meanwhile, give us an indication on the evolution of the house and its duration of occupation. The oldest paintings date back to the end of the 1st century AD, the most recent ones date from the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd century and only shortly before the house was abandoned. We invite you to discover some  pieces of the House of Arcades  that have provided us with the  most beautiful murals and floors.  To do this, click on the proposed  links.