Rome: Catacombs of St. Sebastian Entry Ticket & Guided Tour

+13

Rome: Catacombs of St. Sebastian Entry Ticket & Guided Tour

305 Reviews

Tours Culture & history Guided tours Entry tickets Sightseeing Tours Art & Museums Archaeology Underground & Catacombs History & heritage Museums & exhibitions

Explore the fascinating third-century Catacombs of Saint Sebastian on a guided walking tour. Witness the burial locations of saints, popes, and emperors.

Our Top Experiences and Tours in Rome:

If youʻre booking your trip to Rome last minute, we have you covered. Below are some of the top tours and experiences!

View All Experiences

Highlights

Catacombs of Rome
Guided tour
Rome underground

Description

The place where the Catacomb of San Sebastiano stands was in ancient times a deep depression, used as a pozzolana quarry and called ad catacumbas (or “near the cavities”), a name that has become synonymous with an underground cemetery. Since the first century, the site has been intensely exploited and built: the underground galleries were reused to obtain burial niches, on the surface, however, several columbaria were built and at least two residential systems (the so-called small villa and large villa) equipped with remarkable pictorial wall decorations. Around the middle of the second century, the bottom of the valley was buried to create a pitch, on one side of which three mausoleums were built in succession (by Clodius Hermes, by the Innocentiores, by the Ax). A further burial of the area was made to give space to the construction of the triclia, a portico bordered by a wall on which numerous graffiti invocations addressed to the SS. Peter and Paul, who were venerated together in this place around 250. On the site, then, the emperor Constantine (306-337) had a basilica in the shape of a Roman circus (called 'circiforme'). Meanwhile, already in the third century, the catacomb that housed the tombs of the martyrs Sebastian and Eutichio began to develop underground.