Exquisitely preserved frescoed rooms in the ruined house of Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome, open to the public tomorrow for the first time since they were unearthed nearly half a century ago.

Archaeologists say that the future emperor lived in the house on the Palatine Hill above the Forum in about 30BC, before he gained supreme power and built his imperial palace complex higher up the hill. The paintings have been restored at a cost of nearly €2 million (£1.5 million).

The wall and ceiling paintings in the house - discovered in the 1960s by the Italian archeologist, Gianfilippo Carrettoni - are in vivid red, blue and ochre. They include a small study, believed to have been Augustus's private retreat.

Originally called Octavian, Augustus was the great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, and took the name Augustus on becoming sole ruler in 27BC after the civil wars that followed Caesar's assassination. His rise ended the Roman Republic and marked the beginning of the Roman Empire. He died in 14AD.

Some decorations on the walls and vaulted ceilings were found intact, while others have been pieced together from fragments. In one room, dubbed the Room of the Pines, the walls are painted to represent yellow columns.

In another, known as the Room of the Masks, a wall is painted like a stage, with narrow side doors standing ajar, comic masks peering through small windows and painted garden vistas beyond.

Visitors will enter the rooms in small groups to avoid damage to the delicate frescoes, restored after 20 years of excavation and conservation at the site by a team led by Irene Jacopi, the archaeologist in charge of the Palatine Hill.

Francesco Rutelli, the Minister of Culture, said that 12 million had been set aside to conserve the Palatine Hill ruins, many of which are crumbling because of subsidence. They include the house of Livia, named after Augustus's beautiful wife, which restorers also hope to open to the public.

Mr Rutelli, who is standing for election as mayor of Rome next month, told The Times that the city was “rediscovering the splendours of its past as never before”. These included illegally exported antiquities returned by US museums and now on show at the Quirinal Palace. The opening of the Augustus rooms was “an extraordinary event, the fruit of decades of work thanks to state funds but also funding from private bodies like the World Monument Fund”, he said.

Angelo Bottini, superintendent of archeology for Rome, said that a new combined ticket would provide access to the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, and the Palatine Hill, including the house of Augustus. The Palatine Hill is where Rome's first huts were buillt under Romulus, and where the homes and palaces of the imperial elite later rose.

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