ROME Catacomb Tours GUIDE |
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CRYPTS AND CATACOMBS
::: Every Monday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday between 09:00 - 12:00. |
Accounts vary with regard to the number of catacomb sites in the Rome area. Conservative estimates propose a 175 kilometre network of underground burial chambers across some 60 individual sites, part of a wider disparate total of up to 1000 kilometres, which rest a projected 15 metres beneath suburban Rome. The name of each catacomb originates from the most holy martyr laid to rest there.
Catacombs of San Callisto At least 10 kilometres long and 20m below ground in parts, they occupy over 15 hectares of land. The traditional resting place of sixty martyrs, sixteen popes and many thousands of ordinary Christians as the main burial ground of the Roman Church in the 3rd Century, they were excavated from c. 185 AD. Pope Zephyrinus delegated responsibility for the catacombs and others nearby to his deacon and successor Callixtus, martyred in 222 AD as Bishop of Rome (Pope Callistus I). The Crypt of the Popes, where epitaphs still remain intact beside six of the nine papal loculi, namely those of SS. Antherus, Eutichian, Fabian, Lucius I, Pontianus and Sixtus II (230 AD - 283 AD, including several papal interregna), Crypt of Lucina, Saint Cecilia and the Cubicles of Sacraments are all visited. Many burial chambers are inaccessible as they warrant further study.
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Ancient ROMAN CRYPTS Tours |
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