The largest of the about 60 catacombs in Rome. About 20 km (12.42 miles) of tunnels in a 15 hectares (37 acres) area with four levels and about 500,000 graves
The most ancient areas that don't have a definite Christian origin date back to the II century AD
Named after the banker and deacon St. Callistus (217/222) who administered it by order of Pope Zephyrinus (199/217)
When he became pope himself Callistus made it bigger and it became the official cemetery of the Roman Church for about 200 years
From 217 to 283 more than 50 martyrs and 16 popes were buried here, not Callistus though: for mysterious reasons, he is buried in the Catacomb of Calepodius
The Catacomb was abandoned in the fifth century and rediscovered in 1849 by the scholar G.B. De Rossi
"In the middle of 1800s the archeology of the catacombs was at last released from the darkness that had enveloped it after the death of Antonio Bosio in 1629. (...) In 1851 the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology was established by Pope Pius IX, who was responsible for the protection and scientific exploration of the catacombs. G.B. De Rossi (1822/94), the founder of the modern science of Christian archeology, took up in those years the research path traced by Bosio. (...) The critical rigor and novelty of his method of inquiry, the cut and the historical tension that substantiate it, are still fundamental legacy for anybody approaching the study of the catacombs" (Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai)
AREA I and CRYPT OF THE POPES
After the entrance building with three apses (Cella Trichora) maybe Basilica of Sts. Sixtus and Cecilia transformed into a museum
At the lowest level seventeen burials including nine popes:
Inaugurated by Fabiano (236/250) who buried his two predecessors Pontian (230/235) and Antero (235/236 pope for only 40 days)
There are also the popes Lucius, Stephen, Sixtus II, Dionysius, Felix and Eutychian
In an adjacent chapel ceiling painted with a rare image of "Orpheus"
"At the time of the first modern discoveries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it began to spread the curious belief that the catacombs had had function of dwelling places or refuge for the early Christians in the time of persecution. This legend was fueled, among other things from the distorted interpretation of some ancient sources, such as the phrases of the 'Liber Pontificalis' Roman alluding to the stay of some popes in the 'cemeteries' (meaning of course the widest sense of the term including the existing building above ground) or the killing, in the catacomb of S. Callisto, during the persecution of Valerian, on August 6, 258, of Pope Sixtus II with his deacons 'in the cemetery'. In fact, as it is well known, the catacombs were exclusively burial areas used for the burial and funerary cult of the members of the early Christian communities" (Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai)
The oldest area is the pre-Constantinian CRYPT OF LUCINA near the Appian Way consisting of two subareas linked to the death of Pope Cornelius (251/253)
CRYPT OF St. CECILIA
Annexed to the area of the popes. Tradition places here the tomb of St. Cecilia whose real historical existence is not certain
Copy of the statue by Stefano Maderno now in the Basilica of St. Cecilia in Trastevere
Stefano Maderno was here in the year 1600 when the tomb of St. Cecilia was believed to be opened. The body of a young girl was found, the position of which he faithfully replicated in marble, creating a milestone in the history of sculpture for the transition from Mannerist to Baroque sensibility
Next to the crypt of the popes CUBICLES OF THE SACRAMENTS made out of six chapels for wealthy families with paintings believed to be representations of the sacraments:
"Moses who makes water flow from the rock"
"Story of Jonah"
"Moses and the fisherman"
"Samaritan"
"Baptism of Christ"
"Banquets"
"Miracles of Christ"
CUBICLE OF St. EUSEBIUS
CUBICLE OF St. GAIUS
In front of Eusebius' Cubicle. Pope Gaius (283/296) was buried in a privileged position, the first pope not to be buried in the crypt of the popes
Behind Gaius' Cubicle there is a room with decoration in opus sectile
REGION OF SOTERE with the cubicle so called Pantheon and the so called Architectonical Cubicle
Mid-fourth century
Small BASILICA TRICHORA
CUBICLE OF SHEEP
Paintings "Good Shepherd", "Moses making water spring from rocks" and "Multiplication of the loaves"
CUBICULUM K
"Judgment Day"
"Four Seasons"
CUBICULUM Z
LIBERIAN REGION
Along the area of St. Soteride is the most spectacular (although closed to the public) with monumental features and venerated tombs, maybe of the Roman clergy
CRYPT L
Tomb of Pope Cornelius (251/253), whose body was transferred in the ninth century in the Basilica of Our Lady in Trastevere
Byzantine paintings with "Sixtus II, Cornelius and St. Cyprian"
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