Ancient Rome's biggest fresco and mosaic opens to visitors three decades after discovery

ROME (AP) — Authorities on Tuesday unveiled what is believed to be the largest fresco and mosaic complex of ancient Rome, a 1st-century AD depiction of a maritime city in what became the largest bath complex in the world.

Mayor Roberto Gualtieri presented the recently restored “Painted City” fresco and “Great Mosaic” that were discovered in an underground gallery during excavations in the 1990s of the Baths of Trajan on the Oppio hill near the Colosseum.

The works are opening to the public for the first time, initially in small groups of 15 and during a trial period of weekend access starting this month. The aim is to determine how the delicate works respond to increased humidity and climactic impacts before allowing more general access.

Gualtieri said the fresco, which features images of a walled port city from a birds-eye view perspective, was the largest wall fresco of its kind from ancient Rome and as such needs to be open to the public. After being hidden undergound for centuries, its blues and terra cotta colors are still clear but faded.

“They are truly unique in the world, both from the point of view of artistic beauty and the historic and documental importance,” he said at the unveiling.

Rome’s cultural superintendent, Claudio Parisi Presicce, said the grandeur of the port city as depicted in the fresco, with buildings, a theater and temple, public piazzas and towers, was particularly well conserved. The restoration work included techniques to preserve and improve visibility, remove surface deposits and consolidate the grouting to keep the decorated surfaces intact.

“We don’t know what city it refers to, but it must have been a particularly well-known one,” he said

The mosaic, for its part, measures some 15 meters (yards) high and features intricately decorated columns and architectural elements and figures over four different levels. The top levels are up-close images with people that are almost like theatrical scenes, while at the bottom are views of the port city’s layout from above.

The Baths of Trajan, which were dedicated by Emperor Trajan in 109 AD, extended over six hectares (15 acres) and were at the time the largest bath complex in the world. They incorporated an earlier baths complex, the Domus Aurea, and were designed on a different trajectory to take better advantage of the water temperatures to optimize the thermal experience for users.

The complex now open to the public includes a grand semicircular upper-level “library” which archaeologists believe was part of the baths complex and allowed users not only to practice sport and bathe but also to participate in cultural activities.

The southwestern exedra of the Baths of Trajan, backdropped by the Colosseum, sits above the underground foundations where the restored "Painted City" fresco and Great Mosaic were discovered in the 1990s, in Rome, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

View of the "The Painted City 15-meter wall mosaic" discovered during 1990s built as foundations for the Baths of Trajan during 1990s, has been restored, in Rome, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A section of the restored 15-meter ancient wall mosaic from "The Painted City" site, discovered in the late 1990s within the underground structures that served as foundations for the Baths of Trajan, is seen in Rome on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Reporters film the "The Painted City" fresco, discovered during 1990s built as foundations for the Baths of Trajan that has been restored, in Rome, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was scheduled to appear in court remotely Tuesday for a hearing on a claim that an accuser wants to recant allegations that Sandusky sexually abused him years ago.

The hearing is part of the latest bid by Sandusky’s lawyers to secure a new trial for him.

Sandusky, 82, has been serving a decades-long prison sentence since he was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse in 2012, after eight young men testified about what happened to them as boys. He has repeatedly lost efforts to get a new trial.

The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General has said the supposed recantation is “highly suspect.”

The accuser, identified in court documents as R.R., said he was coached extensively by authorities, that he could “safely affirm details I did not fully recall,” he said in an affidavit filed by Sandusky’s attorneys.

R.R.’s allegations were “based on suggestive leading questioning, prosecutorial coercion and influence, confirmatory bias and memory manipulation,” defense attorneys said.

Sandusky was the defensive coordinator at one of the country’s top football programs under Hall of Fame head coach Joe Paterno. The scandal led to Paterno’s firing, and the university paid more than $100 million to people who said they were abused by Sandusky.

Authorities said he found and groomed boys at The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk youth. Sandusky has repeatedly declared his innocence.

R.R., who was 25 years old at trial, testified that when he was 11, Sandusky sexually abused him in the coach’s basement in 1998, a transcript shows.

FILE - Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky arrives at the Centre County Courthouse, Friday, Nov. 22, 2019, in Bellefonte, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)