Plaster Casts of the Victims
Plaster Casts of the Victims features on the Gingerguide audio walk through Pompeii. Give it roughly ~45 min: enough to look, hear a two to three minute story on the spot, and ask the AI guide whatever the story leaves open.
- Type ruins
- Suggested visit ~45 min
- Pompeii Pompeii guide
About Plaster Casts of the Victims
The haunting plaster casts created by archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli in 1863, poured into the voids left by decomposed bodies in the hardened volcanic ash, preserving the final moments of eruption victims.
The plaster casts of Pompeii's victims are among the most powerful and disturbing objects in all of archaeology. The technique was invented in 1863 by Giuseppe Fiorelli, who realised that the void spaces within the hardened layers of volcanic ash were the exact negative impressions of the bodies that had decomposed within them over nearly 1,800 years. By carefully injecting liquid plaster of Paris into these voids through small holes and waiting for it to set, he produced three-dimensional casts of the victims in their final positions, some covering their mouths against the toxic gases, some curled in a foetal position from pain, some apparently still trying to crawl away. Over 100 casts have been produced at Pompeii. Many are displayed throughout the site; the most concentrated group is in the Orto dei Fuggiaschi, the Garden of the Fugitives, where 13 victims who died together are displayed in the positions in which they fell. The casts are deeply human documents: they show not abstractions but specific individuals who lived and breathed and feared, and whose last moments are preserved with terrible intimacy.
Did you know? Giuseppe Fiorelli's 1863 plaster-casting technique was later adapted to cast not just human victims but also wooden objects like doors and furniture that had burned away, leaving only their ash-impressions behind.
How long is a visit to Plaster Casts of the Victims?
Set aside roughly ~45 min for Plaster Casts of the Victims. That covers a good look and the narrated story, and because you set the pace you can always stay on.
Is Plaster Casts of the Victims worth your time?
Plaster Casts of the Victims is among the 15 narrated highlights the Gingerguide team chose for Pompeii, so it is worth a look. Hear the story for the context, then ask the AI guide for anything more.
Nearby stops in Pompeii
Hear the story of Plaster Casts of the Victims
Preview the Pompeii tour free in the Gingerguide app.