It was originally the residence of Julia Felix, who converted portions of it to apartments available for rent and other parts for public use after the major earthquake in 62 CE, a precursor to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE that destroyed Pompeii. Sections of the praedia allowed for indoor and outdoor seating with frescoes depicting landscapes of leisure and gardens. The sumptuousness of the architecture and the quality of the decoration indicate that the praedia were intended for richer and higher status customers.

First excavated between 1754-57, the house was subsequently re-buried after much damage had been done. It was re-excavated and restored in 1952-53. The house and gardens occupy one of the largest plots in Pompeii, taking up virtually an entire block.

The property had been created out of two complete insulae which had been merged together along with the intervening street. The loss of such an important street leading to the amphitheatre was compensated for by the widening of the next street, the Vicolo dell'Anfiteatro, which gained ground at the expense of Julia's estate. About one third of the area was occupied by the house and associated buildings while the remainder was given over to an extensive vegetable garden.

After the earthquake of 62 CE, Julia Felix, must have decided to rent out part of the house along with opening her private baths to the general public. A notice to this effect , found on the front of the property reads:

To let, for the term of five years, from the thirteenth day of next August to the thirteenth day of the sixth August thereafter, the Venus bath, fitted up for the best people, shops, rooms over shops, and second-story apartments in the property owned by Julia Felix, daughter of Spurius.

The doorway open directly onto a large rectangular atrium with a shallow central impluvium. The atrium is unusual in that no rooms open directly off it although it does give access to other parts of the house by means of corridors and a porticoed ambulatory.

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Julia Felix's estate encompassed an entire insula (city block) at the peak of her ownership, reflecting her significant wealth and status. Following the devastating earthquake of 62 CE, she transformed her property into a multifunctional space that included opulent public baths, leisure gardens, and rental apartments, catering to the needs of Pompeii's residents.

The origins of Julia Felix's wealth remain a subject of scholarly debate. Some academics argue that she was "a low-born, illegitimate daughter of Spurius," while others suggest she descended from imperial freedmen. Regardless of her lineage, Julia Felix capitalized on her property to establish herself as a prominent figure in Pompeii's social and economic life. By renting out her villa, she simultaneously fulfilled roles as a landlord, entrepreneur, and public benefactor.

During her lifetime, Roman laws imposed restrictions on women’s property ownership, often requiring the oversight of a male guardian for transactions. However, women who were legally independent from male guardians—including certain elite women—could navigate these restrictions and manage their own assets. In Julia Felix’s case, her ability to develop and lease her property underscores the opportunities available to women of means, even within a patriarchal legal framework.

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The earliest excavation of the site occurred in 1755 under R.J. de Alcubierre and Karl Jakob Weber, primarily as treasure hunting to retrieve valuables for the Bourbon royal family. The first Pompeian skeleton was discovered in 1748, and the building was later reburied, though Weber's detailed plans proved invaluable for reconstructing its layout. Initial excavations revealed a taberna, luxurious baths, and ornately decorated garden dining rooms. Further digs from 1912 to 1935 uncovered a shrine and the building's façade, while significant finds in 1998–1999 included a nymphaeum with a water-stair fountain and a triclinium, showcasing modifications after the 62 CE earthquake.

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Atrium
The atrium, which has lost much of its fresco decoration, was decorated in reds and yellows with a long horizontal frieze depicting everyday life in the forum (a portion of the frieze is shown left). (The additional fresco lower left is a further market scene found in the house but no long longer in-site; it can now be seen in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples).

On the east side of the atrium a door leads to the service area for the bath complex. A long service corridor opens off the south west corner of the atrium while a wide opening in the centre of the south wall opens onto the porticoed ambulatory that runs along the west side of a large central garden. The garden is framed by elegant stuccoed columns and has a long water feature thought to represent the Canopus canal in Egypt.

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Baths

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Porticus
The walls of the portico-ambulatory are decorated with square red panels bordered in black alternating with rectangular red panels with a central yellow field all above a lower black frieze.

In the centre of the ambulatory is a summer triclinium which is fully open along its eastern side. The couches of the triclinium are veneered with marble as are the three surrounding walls up to the level of the broad dado rail. The nymphaeum on the west wall consists of a marble veneered cascade framed by niches.

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Atrium of the Domus
At the southern end of the ambulatory a doorway leads to a second atrium. This part of the house is a virtually self contained apartment with its own access off the Vicolo de Giulia Felice. The atrium has a central, marble lined impluvium and has rooms off all four sides. The decoration, based on the remaining plaster remnants, was in the fourth style and consisted of a red central zone above a lower black frieze. Two rooms of particular note, both accessed off the east side of the atrium, are the biclinium and the tablinum.

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Triclinium
In the large room that, under the portico, overlooks the garden of the house, we can recognize a triclinium-nymphaeum, a dining room, in which, lying on marble beds, the guests of the praedia could enjoy the coolness of the water that, behind them, poured in a cascade from a niche in the center of the wall.

This sensation must have been further amplified by the Nile landscape that decorated the middle area of ​​the side walls. A rich variety of scenes with pygmies and animals of the great river stood out against a light blue background, describing a world that was both exotic and familiar. Of the fresco, numerous fragments of which are preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, a scene remains in situ, on the north wall, with a pygmy waving a bow and arrow towards two other pygmies, who are rowing on a boat; a crocodile swims to their left. The descriptive elements of the entire landscape can therefore be inscribed, as for the other frescoes of similar subject, in an aquatic reality from which emerge small islands and strips of land rich in vegetation, populated by crocodiles, hippos and ducks, in which the pygmies themselves are depicted engaged in various activities. The presence of an isolated niche, used as an Isiac shrine - destroyed after the removal, in the eighteenth century, of the paintings that decorated it - is documented on the south side of the garden.