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Stephanus's Laundry

Regio I   Insula 6.7
MAP

This is the only building in Pompeii which was originally built as a laundry and fuller's workshop; the three other establishments of this kind were restructured residential buildings. The fuller's workshop provided services to numerous clothiers, wool makers and tailors working in the town. According to the electoral slogans painted on the facade ('the united fullers recommend ... Stephanus recommends"), the establishment has been attributed to a certain Stephanus.

A press used to fold cloth was placed against the left wall of the large entrance hall. Once past the entrance hall, we enter an Atrium with a flat roof which served as a terrace to hang out the washing. Finer cloth was washed in the large parapeted tank in the middle of the Atrium.

The Peristyle at the rear of the Atrium has three intercommunicating stone tubs and, alongside these, five basins where cloth was trodden by foot. A number of vessels containing urine were found nearby. Urine was used to treat the cloth and was collected in terra-cotta amphorae which were stored in separate rooms not far from the workshop itself. The kitchen and a lavatory are reached through a door in the left-hand corner of the Peristyle.

Returning to and crossing Via dell'Abbondanza, we reach the entrance to a shop in which activities linked to those of the laundry were carried out. This is the so-called "Workshop of Verecundus", which was a felting establishment. As with many buildings in this street, only the facade now remains. The plaster on the facade is covered with illustrated advertisements showing the manufacturing phases of the articles that were made in it, among which felt shoes and ready-made clothes which were sold directly to the public.

This is the only building in Pompeii which was originally built as a laundry and fuller's workshop; the three other establishments of this kind were restructured residential buildings. The fuller's workshop provided services to numerous clothiers, wool makers and tailors working in the town. According to the electoral slogans painted on the facade ('the united fullers recommend ... Stephanus recommends"), the establishment has been attributed to a certain Stephanus.

A press used to fold cloth was placed against the left wall of the large entrance hall. Once past the entrance hall, we enter an Atrium with a flat roof which served as a terrace to hang out the washing. Finer cloth was washed in the large parapeted tank in the middle of the Atrium.

The Peristyle at the rear of the Atrium has three intercommunicating stone tubs and, alongside these, five basins where cloth was trodden by foot. A number of vessels containing urine were found nearby. Urine was used to treat the cloth and was collected in terra-cotta amphorae which were stored in separate rooms not far from the workshop itself. The kitchen and a lavatory are reached through a door in the left-hand corner of the Peristyle.

Returning to and crossing Via dell'Abbondanza, we reach the entrance to a shop in which activities linked to those of the laundry were carried out. This is the so-called "Workshop of Verecundus", which was a felting establishment. As with many buildings in this street, only the facade now remains. The plaster on the facade is covered with illustrated advertisements showing the manufacturing phases of the articles that were made in it, among which felt shoes and ready-made clothes which were sold directly to the public.

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