(refiles, changes Thursday to Friday).
Pompeii's largest house Villa
dei Misteri (Villa of the Mysteries), famous for its frescoes of
the cult of Bacchus or Dionysus, reopened Friday after a
two-year restoration and a three-month closure for work on its
paving.
"Here in Pompeii we're turning over a new leaf" after years
of collapses and damage to the UNESCO site, said Culture
Minister Dario Franceschini as he cut the ribbon.
"Today is a truly important day for Pompeii," he went on.
"We have behind us a year of extraordinary work. We have
closed three work sites while another 13 have been opened, nine
contracts have been started and we have hired 85 people in
various positions.
"The visitors rose by 200,000 in 2014.
"We have very many initiatives planned for the (Milan) Expo
(world's fair too.
"We know the world looks to Pompeii with scrupulous
attention.
"Today Italy is proud to tell the world: 'We have turned
over a new leaf in Pompeii'".
The restoration, which began in May 2013, was funded by the
Special Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of
Naples and Pompeii (SANP) and was conducted in lots so that
parts of the Villa were still open to the public throughout the
restoration process.
The Villa was first discovered in excavations in 1909 and
was exceptionally well-preserved despite the eruption of
Vesuvius in 79 A.D., which covered it in a layer of over 30 feet
of volcanic ash.
The recent restoration work, which involved 70 rooms of the
Villa, corrected some of the damage inflicted by previous
restoration techniques that were found to be harmful to the
Villa's frescoes over the years.
In work done during the 1930s, wax was applied to preserve
the frescoes, but ultimately faded the colors, something that
was corrected using techniques to first identify the nature of
the chromatic alterations and other damage over time and then
perform restorations.
In addition to work done to restore the Villa's frescoes,
the most famous of which is the Dionysiac friezes portraying the
mysteries of the Cult of Dionysus from which the Villa takes its
name, work was also done to clean the intricate mosaic floor
decorations.
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