Description
The Catacombs of Domitilla are a Christian cemetery dug beneath the countryside along the Via Ardeatina, on the southern outskirts of Rome. Galleries on several levels run through the tuff, with tombs, chapels and frescoes from the 2nd to the 4th century.
You go down into the basilica of Saints Nereus and Achilleus, built over the tomb of two martyrs between 390 and 395. A small column of the ciborium still shows the scene of Achilleus's martyrdom: a soldier about to behead him.
Then there are the frescoes: the matron Veneranda led into paradise by the martyr Petronilla, the Good Shepherd and an Epiphany with four Magi, rare to find. The cubiculum of Ampliatus has paintings of pagan subjects, in a Christian tomb. St. Petronilla was believed to be St. Peter's daughter only because her name seemed to derive from Petrus.
Another famous area is the hypogeum of the Flavians: born in the 2nd century and originally pagan, it has a decorated gallery onto which open four large niches for the sarcophagi of the most important members of the family.
The name is that of a woman of the emperors' family. The Flavians were the dynasty of Vespasian and the Colosseum, but some of them converted to Christianity and were persecuted. Flavia Domitilla owned the land where the cemetery was born.
Here Christians and pagans lay side by side for a long time. Then came the martyrs: Nereus and Achilleus drew pilgrims for centuries, and Pope Damasus turned their crypt into a basilica. In the 9th century the relics were taken into the city because the countryside had become unsafe.
The catacomb was abandoned and forgotten, until Antonio Bosio rediscovered it at the end of the 1500s. In 1965, a few days before the end of the Second Vatican Council, the Pact of the Catacombs was signed here.
The galleries are spread over seven regions, all earlier than Constantine, and develop mostly on two levels, with a third and a fourth in some parts. Another area is the region of the mosaic staircase. Before the underground entrance, in the open air, are the traces of the oldest cemetery: columbaria, mausoleums and tombs of the 1st century BC.
You go down into the basilica of Saints Nereus and Achilleus, built over the tomb of two martyrs between 390 and 395. A small column of the ciborium still shows the scene of Achilleus's martyrdom: a soldier about to behead him.
Then there are the frescoes: the matron Veneranda led into paradise by the martyr Petronilla, the Good Shepherd and an Epiphany with four Magi, rare to find. The cubiculum of Ampliatus has paintings of pagan subjects, in a Christian tomb. St. Petronilla was believed to be St. Peter's daughter only because her name seemed to derive from Petrus.
Another famous area is the hypogeum of the Flavians: born in the 2nd century and originally pagan, it has a decorated gallery onto which open four large niches for the sarcophagi of the most important members of the family.
The name is that of a woman of the emperors' family. The Flavians were the dynasty of Vespasian and the Colosseum, but some of them converted to Christianity and were persecuted. Flavia Domitilla owned the land where the cemetery was born.
Here Christians and pagans lay side by side for a long time. Then came the martyrs: Nereus and Achilleus drew pilgrims for centuries, and Pope Damasus turned their crypt into a basilica. In the 9th century the relics were taken into the city because the countryside had become unsafe.
The catacomb was abandoned and forgotten, until Antonio Bosio rediscovered it at the end of the 1500s. In 1965, a few days before the end of the Second Vatican Council, the Pact of the Catacombs was signed here.
The galleries are spread over seven regions, all earlier than Constantine, and develop mostly on two levels, with a third and a fourth in some parts. Another area is the region of the mosaic staircase. Before the underground entrance, in the open air, are the traces of the oldest cemetery: columbaria, mausoleums and tombs of the 1st century BC.