Catacombs

The word “catacomb” is used to define any kind of underground necropolis. The old term to call this monuments is coemeterium, derived word from the greek that means “bedroom”. For christians, the sepulture was a provisional moment, of transaction on the way to resurrection.

The old Rome’s law forbid, because of sanitary reasons, bury the dead inside the city. The roman roads were flanked by splendid sepulchres of the patrician families, that were generally incinerated and conserved their ashes inside the urns.

The first christians, instead, considering that they had to be ready for resurrection, were buried without being burnt on underground groutes excavated on the rocks. The dead were deposited in the grave wrapped in two layers of cloth soaked in bleach to avoid the risk of contagion to the living.

According to some authors, the catacombs were shelters in which to hide during the persecutions, while for others were places to meet to honor the dead, especially the martyrs and popes, usually with banquets.

With the signing of the Edict of Milan in the year 313, the persecution of the Christians ceased, so they could begin to build churches and acquire land without fear of being confiscated. Despite this they continued using the Catacombs as cemeteries until the 5th century.

During the invasion of the barbarians in Italy in the eighth century, many catacombs were sacked, so the popes transferred the relics that still conserved to the churches of the city. After the transfers some Catacombs were completely abandoned and were forgotten for several centuries.

The Catacombs began to be built in the second century. Many of them were excavated and expanded around the tombs of the villas of important families in Rome, whose owners, newly converted to Christianity, opened them not only for their families but also for their brothers in the faith.

At first the name of Catacombs was given to the cemetery of Saint Sebastian, that place where the early Christians of Rome had provisionally buried the bodies of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, at a time when they feared that they would be stolen. It was the place called ad catacumbas.

In Rome there are more than 60 catacombs composed of hundreds of underground galleries that house thousands of tombs. The most important and that can be visited today are:

Catacombs of Saint Sebastian (Via Appia Antica, 136). These 12 km long Catacombs owe their name to Saint Sebastian, a soldier who was martyred for converting to Christianity.

Catacombs of Saint Calixtus (Via Appia Antica, 126). With a network of galleries over 20 km long. The tombs of Saint Calixtus were the burial place of 16 pontiffs and dozens of Christian martyrs.

Catacombs of Priscilla (Via Salaria, 430). They preserve some very important frescoes for the history of art, such as the first representations of the Virgin Mary.

Catacombs of Domitila (Via delle Sette Chiese, 280). Discovered in the year 1593. Of more than 15 km, they owe their name to the granddaughter of Emperor Vespasian.

Catacombs of Saint Agnes (Via Normentana, 349). After being martyred for her Christian faith, Saint Agnes was buried in them.

By extension, throughout the Middle Ages this name was given to all known cemeteries in the outskirts of Rome that formed a large necropolis and had their own characteristics. Following that extension catacombs were also called to all the underground cemeteries found in other places although they belonged to very different and much more modern times. This happened in Italy itself with the burials of Naples, whose oldest galleries are from the 3rd and 4th centuries, perfectly known and described by the historian G. Pelliccia and with the subterranean galleries of Chiusi in Tuscany, also from the same period.