Villa of the Mysteries

Roman buildings were constructed of brick and cement. This substructure was covered with fresco, or stucco wall paintings often executed in bright vermilion color that we now call "Pompeiian red." Inside a luxurious building called the "Villa of the Mysteries," a series of paintings on the walls of a salon show the initiation of a young girl into the mysteries or sacred rites of the wine God Dionysus.