Vatican Necropolis (the Scavi)

Historic · Vatican City (Ufficio Scavi, Arco delle Campane)Rome,Italy

A Roman cemetery street of painted family tombs buried under the floor of St Peter's, its altar set deliberately over one particular grave.

The Vatican Necropolis is a Roman street lying under the floor of St Peter's. It is a cemetery road of the first and second centuries, lined with small brick family mausolea that still have their painted walls, their stucco ceilings and the names of the families cut over the doors. Most of the people buried in it were not Christians: freedmen, traders and imperial servants who bought a plot on a hillside outside the city. Their tombs carry peacocks, vines, and in one case a figure driving a chariot of the sun. Constantine's builders cut the hillside away, filled the tombs with earth and set the first basilica on top. They took that on in order to put the altar directly over one particular grave. Excavations between 1939 and 1949 uncovered the street, a red wall, and beside it a second wall covered in scratched prayers. In a cavity in that wall were the bones of a man of sixty or seventy, wrapped in cloth of purple and gold. Who he was is still argued over, and the tour says so plainly.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Getting in is a permission, not a ticket — the excavations office decides whether you go and on what date, the group is capped at a dozen, and nothing can be arranged at the door.
Nobody under ten goes down — the rule is checked, and the hour underground is narrow, dark and slow, so it is not a visit to bring restless children to.
The air down there is close to saturated — humidity sits near 98 per cent, the ancient paving is uneven and there are steps at both ends.
No cameras at all, and the rule is absolute — phones stay away for the whole visit, bags are left behind, and the guides stop anyone who tries.
This is not the papal crypt — that is the free level of tombs directly under the church floor, and the two are constantly confused when people book.

Things to do

1
Walk the buried street
The route follows the Roman road itself, with tomb doors opening on both sides. Look into them as you pass: painted ceilings, stucco, mosaic floors, niches for ash urns. You are moving along a street at its original level, with the weight of the largest church in the world directly overhead.
2
Read the tomb inscriptions as deeds
The inscriptions in each mausoleum are legal texts as much as memorials. They set out who may be buried inside and who may not, and many give the plot's measurements in Roman feet, frontage and depth, exactly as a deed would. Ask the guide to read two of them out.