Casa Romuli (Hut of Romulus), Rome

The humblest of all celebrity homes on the Palatine Hill is the Hut of Romulus. Yes, the legendary founder and first king of Rome apparently lived not in a palace, but in a cozy, one-room peasant hut with a straw roof. Think less marble empire, more early Iron Age studio…

Perched near the slope that leads down to the Circus Maximus, the hut was the kind of simple dwelling traditional for the Latins - wattle and daub walls, thatched roof, rustic charm. If you’ve ever seen the cute little house-shaped funerary urns from the Latial culture (dating from 1000 to 600 BC) - those are basically real-estate ads for this structure...

And because this hut belonged to the very same Romulus, the Romans treated it like a national treasure. Throughout the centuries, it suffered multiple damages from fires and storms. In 38 BC, during a religious ceremony involving an altar-fire sacrifice to Romulus, the flame got out of control and destroyed the building. Still, on that and many other disastrous occasions, the hut was meticulously restored to its original state (like a very tiny version of the Colosseum - with more kindling...).

There was even a duplicate hut up on the Capitoline Hill - likely a replica of the original one - which lasted until around 78 AD, which is impressively long for a thatched roof...

So where was the real thing? In 1946, archaeologists uncovered hut foundations (4.9 by 3.6 meters) carved into the Palatine’s tufa bedrock - roughly egg-shaped, with post holes like you’d expect for a straw-topped residence. Organic materials found at the site were dated to the Italian early Iron Age, roughly between 900 and 700 BC. Was it the Romulus home? The evidence seemed affirming (though the ancient paparazzi left no autographs behind).

Although further research and investigation are still needed to establish a definitive link, this discovery presents a compelling case to associate this finding with the dwelling of the legendary Romulus. It also serves as a powerful reminder: Rome may have conquered the world, but it all started with one legendary hut - and a founder who clearly wasn’t afraid to begin at ground level...