The building following the Temple of Hadrian is a house with a peristyle known as the House of Love. The statue of Priapus, called the god Bes, on display in the Ephesus Museum was found in this house.
This statue and the mosaics found on the floor of a room on the west side of the house which showed two women and a man having fun together provided strong argument that this could be a house of love. Of the two storeyed house only the ground floor was preserved. This floor was paved with mosaics and marble and its walls were covered with frescoes. There was a peristyle in the middle and around it were rooms and halls of various sizes. The entrance of the house was on the Curetes Street. As the house was located on a corner another entrance was provided from the Marble Street. In the Byzantine period the front of the entrance on the Curetes Street was turned in to a stoa called Alytarhos.
A well still in use today, located on the side next to the Curetes Street, procured water for the house in times of water cut. The house was built in the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD) together with the Latrine and the Temple of Hadrian.
House of Love Ephesus
Across the plaza from the library one sees the public latrines, the Baths of Varius and the ‘House of Love’, or brothel. These latrines, built in the first century CE, are a typical example of the kind of public latrines the Romans built as a civil amenity throughout their empire.
They were constructed as a long bench with multiple holes emptying into the sewer. Typically the facilities were co-ed and no barriers separated the holes for privacy. Next to the latrine house stood the Baths of Varius, built in the second century CE by a wealthy Ephesian, P. Quintilius Varius. In the fifth century these baths were rebuilt by a wealthy woman named Skolastica. A bit north of the latrines on Marble Street, between Library and Theatre, sat the ‘House of Love’. Like other Roman brothels (for example the one preserved in Pompeii) the Ephesian brothel’s walls were decorated with mosaics portraying the working-girls.
HOUSE OF LOVE, EPHESUS
I visited this site a few years back & thought it was amazing, there is so much history & one of the best ancient sites I have been to, I must admit I would definitely go back here on my next trip to Turkey.
House of Love, Ephesus
The House of Love was built in Emperor Traianus and Hadrianus the periods in the 2nd century AD as a two-storey structure. The house of love has two separate entrances, one from Marble Street and another one from Curetes Street, the floor is covered with mosaic and marble, and the walls are covered with frescos. The colored mosaics on the floor of a room symbolizes four seasons. The Pripos sculpture called God Bes which is being exhibited in the Ephesus Museum was found in this house.
Ephesus is an amazing ancient Roman city. The construction and planning by the romans was incredible, there were so many interesting features; House of Love, Marble Street, Agora & Odeon, Great Theatre, as well as the Library of Celsus. The impressive sanitary system developed by the Romans was sheer genius.