The Crypt of the Popes and Saint Cecilia
Why is it significant?
Stop beside the little brick building with three rounded apses, shaped like a clover leaf, standing alone among the trees. It is one of the few early Christian structures above ground here, a small memorial church from late antiquity.
Key Facts
| Place | The Crypt of the Popes and Saint Cecilia |
|---|---|
| Address | Via Appia Antica 110/126, 00179 Roma RM, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.85890, 12.51080 |
| Part of Walk | Queen of Roads: Rome's Appian Way from the Baths of Caracalla to the Catacombs |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop beside the little brick building with three rounded apses, shaped like a clover leaf, standing alone among the trees. It is one of the few early Christian structures above ground here, a small memorial church from late antiquity. Beneath your feet, a staircase leads down into the heart of the catacomb.
Down there is the Crypt of the Popes. In the third century, nine bishops of Rome were laid to rest in a single chamber, and some of their names, cut in Greek on the slabs, can still be read: Anterus, Fabian, Lucius, Eutychian. In 258, during the persecution of the emperor Valerian, Pope Sixtus the Second was seized in one of the cemeteries along this road while leading a service, and beheaded together with several of his deacons. He was buried here, among his predecessors.
Next door is the crypt of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music. Her body rested here until the ninth century, when Pope Paschal the First moved it to her church in Trastevere. When her tomb there was opened in 1599, the story goes, the body was found intact, lying on its side, and the sculptor Stefano Maderno carved her exactly as she had been seen. A copy of his statue now lies in her empty niche down here, the neck still showing the marks of the executioner's blade.
When the barbarian invasions came, the relics were moved inside the city, and the catacombs were slowly abandoned and forgotten. This one was rediscovered in the middle of the nineteenth century by Giovanni Battista de Rossi, the founding father of Christian archaeology, who spotted a broken inscription in a vineyard and followed it underground. The story goes that when he showed the Crypt of the Popes to Pius the Ninth, the pope was moved to tears.
Back on the Appian Way, turn right and keep walking south. In a few minutes the road opens onto a small square in front of a pale basilica... the place that gave the whole world the word catacomb.