Pompeii and Roman gladiators back to life in exhibition premiering in Barcelona

A new historic exhibit on Pompeii’s gladiator history will open on Thursday at Barcelona’s Maritime Museum showing what gladiator’s life was like back in the year 79 AD.

The exhibit ‘Pompeii. The Last Gladiator’ will be open from June 1 to October 15 and it is a combination of the Roman city’s history and a virtual reality experience so visitors can live a day through a gladiator’s life in Pompeii. 

“This is not just a traditional exhibit, this is an experience to live through. That is how I see exhibitions,” says Roberto Panté, the artistic director of the exhibition. 

“Virtual reality, and other activities organised for schools, are also a way to take history closer to the younger generations,” Panté added, talking to Catalan News. 

 

In this exhibition, "we explain Pompeii's history through the eyes of gladiators. The figure of the gladiators is a little bit of the link [between the Roman city and its history] throughout the show," he added.

The experience offers visitors the opportunity to walk through the streets of Pompeii, such as the Via Dell'Abbondanza, the centre of economic activity of the city, and also the Colosseum, where fights took place. 

The Maritime Museum, near the port of Barcelona, will also shelter more than 150 pieces from the Archaeological Museum of Naples such as marble statues, mosaics and comedic masks. 

“The exhibit shows the perfect equilibrium between beauty and archaeological pieces. I had never been on the metaverse, but I was stunned to go through this experience,” confesses the scientific director of the exhibition, Raffaele Iovine.