The building, probably the headquarters of the corporation of the fabri navales (ship builders), is traditionally dated in around the mid-2nd century AD, but recent studies have suggested a 3rd century AD chronology. Its monumental façade is an exedra with columns (A) giving access to a vestibule with side rooms with niches (B), in one of which stood the statue of the emperor Trajan. Inside, the building was arranged around a large courtyard with a brick colonnade and a central basin (C). Later, at the back of the courtyard a banqueting hall (D) and other public rooms were built, decorated with mosaic floors and wall paintings in imitation of a marble veneer. The building was erected above earlier houses, the oldest of which (Domus dei Bucrani) dates to the 1st century BC. The remains of a domus (house) of the early Imperial period (E) can still be seen in the courtyard of the Schola, including a peristyle and some mosaics.
Axonometric reconstruction and façades of the building
(I. Gismondi, G. Goldoni)
Axonometric reconstruction and façades of the building
(I. Gismondi, G. Goldoni)
Statue of Trajan
(Museo Ostiense)
Mosaic in banqueting hall D
Paintings from the Domus dei Bucrani
The exedra during excavation (1939)
Mosaic and painted decoration of the peristyle Domus
Sculpture group of wrestlers from the Schola (Guild Seat) of Trajan
(Ostia warehouses)
Altar of Anubis and Harpocrates discovered in the building
(Ostia warehouses)