Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
be crucified again). Reluctantly deciding to join him, Peter tramped back into town where
he was arrested and executed.
Catacombe di San Callisto
CATACOMB
(
06 513 01 51;
www.catacombe.roma.it
; Via Appia Antica 110 & 126; adult/reduced €8/5;
9am-
noon & 2-5pm, closed Wed mid-Jan-mid-Feb; Via Appia Antica)
These are the largest and
busiest of Rome's catacombs. Founded at the end of the 2nd century and named after
Pope Calixtus I, they became the official cemetery of the newly established Roman
Church. In the 20km of tunnels explored to date, archaeologists have found the tombs of
500,000 people and seven popes who were martyred in the 3rd century.
The patron saint of music, St Cecilia, was also buried here, though her body was later
removed to the Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. When her body was exhumed in
1599, more than a thousand years after her death, it was apparently perfectly preserved.
Catacombe di
San Sebastiano
CATACOMB
( 06 785 03 50;
www.catacombe.org
; Via Appia Antica 136; adult/reduced €8/5; 10am-5pm Mon-
Sat, closed mid-Nov-mid-Dec; Via Appia Antica)
The Catacombe di San Sebastiano were the
first burial chambers to be called catacombs, the name deriving from the Greek
kata
(near) and
kymbas
(cavity), because they were located near a cave. During the persecutory
reign of Vespasian, they provided a safe haven for the remains of Saints Peter and Paul.
The first level is now almost completely destroyed, but frescoes, stucco work and epi-
graphs can be seen on the 2nd level. There are also three perfectly preserved mausoleums
and a plastered wall with hundreds of invocations to Peter and Paul, engraved by worship-
pers in the 3rd and 4th centuries.
Antica 136; 8am-1pm & 2-5.30pm daily; Via Appia Antica)
, a much-altered 4th-century
church, preserves one of the arrows allegedly used to kill St Sebastian, and the column to
which he was tied.
Catacombe di Santa Domitilla
CATACOMB
