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Ardeatino, Rome: the Appian catacombs, the Fosse Ardeatine and the Tre Fontane abbey

Ardeatino, Rome

Ardeatino is the twentieth of Rome's quartieri, Q. XX in the official series. It lies outside the Aurelian Walls, along the II, III and IV miles of the via Appia Antica and along the via Ardeatina, and much of it is not street at all but pozzolana country: quarries, catacomb galleries, tomb-lined stretches of Roman road and a two-hundred-hectare estate of farmland inside the city. The Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra lists seven catacombs open to the public in Rome, and three of them are here, each with published hours and a guided visit. Above one of them stands a basilica of the seven-church pilgrimage holding the stone with the footprints of the Quo Vadis story. On the via Ardeatina, the quarries where 335 people were shot in March 1944 are now a memorial with a museum. South-west, on via di Acque Salvie, a Trappist abbey keeps three churches, a shop and a porter's lodge.

  1. Sixteen popes and more than fifty martyrs, the Cripta dei Papi with its original Greek inscriptions, and the crypt of St Cecilia; tours every 30 minutes, closed Wednesdays.

  2. Three levels of galleries, three mausolea in the old quarry piazzola, and the triclia whose walls carry more than 600 graffiti invoking Peter and Paul.

  3. The Cappella delle Reliquie of 1625 holds the stone of the 'Quo Vadis?' episode with the footprints impressed in it, along with an arrow of the martyrdom.

  4. Dug in the estate of Flavia Domitilla, with a Siricius-era basilica over the tombs of Nereus and Achilleus, and Christian and pagan burials side by side.

  5. The quarries where 335 people were shot on 24 March 1944, under a concrete sacrario holding 335 granite sacelli; inaugurated on the fifth anniversary in 1949.

  6. Documents, relics and photographs reconstructing the context of the massacre, inside the mausoleum complex behind the monumental slab.

  7. A Trappist house of Cistercians of the Strict Observance with three churches, on the valley the sources have called Aquae Salviae since the sixth century; open daily 06:30 to 20:45.

  8. The abbey's own produce, including the beer it brews, sold Monday to Saturday 08:30 to 19:30 and Sunday morning; no brewery visit is stated anywhere.

  9. A cafe inside the abbey grounds, carried on the abbey's own menu of the complex; no source states its opening hours.

  10. A paper mill with a documented chain of use back to a fulling mill of 1081, now the regional park's headquarters with a museum in the old machine halls.

  11. Two hundred hectares of Roman countryside with three entrances, farmed since Roman times and freely accessible according to the state park.

  12. Twenty-two murals painted on eleven housing blocks in 2014 and 2015, opened on 9 March 2015 and registered by ICOM as museum institution no. M124582.

  13. A sequence of roadside tombs within about 400 metres of one another, among them the Tomba dei Rabiri, the Tomba del fregio dorico and the Tomba dei Festoni.

  14. Roman baths of the mid-second century in an 8,600 square metre garden, closed to the public since 22 June 2026 for restoration, with no reopening date announced.

The boundaries of Ardeatino

A quartiere is a much larger thing than a rione, and this one is drawn by roads. it.wikipedia's article on Ardeatino gives the perimeter: via Appia Antica divides it from Q. IX Appio-Latino in the stretch from the Aurelian Walls at Porta San Sebastiano to via Cecilia Metella; via Laurentina divides it from Q. XXXII Europa between viale dell'Atletica and via Cristoforo Colombo; via Cristoforo Colombo continues the line to via di Porta Ardeatina; and the rioni San Saba and Celio lie to the north. Past via Cecilia Metella the line moves off the road, and both sides of the Appia at the IV mile fall inside the quartiere.

That has consequences a visitor will notice on the ground, because several famous things on this road are not in this quartiere. The church of the Domine Quo Vadis, at the fork where the Ardeatina leaves the Appia, is in Appio-Latino, and so are the Colonna di Pio IX standing on the far side of the Appia from San Sebastiano, the Mausoleo di Cecilia Metella, the Castrum Caetani and the deconsecrated church of San Nicola a Capo di Bove that stands inside the castle courtyard. The stone with the footprints of the Quo Vadis story is in the Cappella delle Reliquie of San Sebastiano fuori le mura, which is in Ardeatino, and the slab in the Appio-Latino church is a copy of it.

The Aurelian Walls and Porta Ardeatina are the northern boundary itself, and a boundary belongs to neither of the units it divides. Via Appia Antica is the boundary for part of its course here, and it runs far beyond the quartiere in both directions; the sources give position along it as an address and by the mile. Tre Fontane is inside the quartiere: the declared line to the west is via Laurentina, and the abbey stands east of it on via di Acque Salvie.

Getting there

Steer by bus lines and street numbers, which the operators publish.

The Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra gives ATAC 118 and 218 for the Catacombe di San Callisto at Via Appia Antica 110, and ATAC 30, 130, 160, 670, 174 and 716 for the Catacombe di Domitilla at Via delle Sette Chiese 282. The operator of the Catacombe di San Sebastiano, at Via Appia Antica 136, gives three routes to the stop called Catacombe di San Sebastiano: bus 660 from Metro A Arco di Travertino, bus 118 from Metro B Colosseo or Circo Massimo, and bus 218 from Metro A San Giovanni, alighting at Fosse Ardeatine and continuing 300 metres along Vicolo delle Sette Chiese. The Parco archeologico dell'Appia antica gives Metro A Arco di Travertino with bus 660, Metro A Colli Albani with bus 663, or bus 118 from the historic centre for Capo di Bove at Via Appia Antica 222.

The other addresses to put into a map: Via Ardeatina 174 for the Mausoleo delle Fosse Ardeatine; Via di Acque Salvie 1 for the Abbazia delle Tre Fontane, off via Laurentina; Via Appia Antica 42 for the Ex Cartiera Latina and the regional park authority; Viale di Tor Marancia 63 for the Museo Condominiale di Tor Marancia; Piazza Lante and Via Francesco Belloni, both off Via Giulio Aristide Sartorio, and Viale Londra for the three entrances to the Tenuta di Tor Marancia. The regional park authority also runs bicycle hire; no address is stated for it, so none is given here.

Hours, tickets and access

The three ticketed catacombs are guided sites and their published terms differ. San Callisto opens 09:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 17:00, with tours starting every 30 minutes and lasting about 40, a minimum of two people per tour and the ticket desk shutting at 16:50; the last afternoon tour starts at 16:30 on Maundy Thursday. The catacombs are closed every Wednesday, on 1 January and on 25 December, and for an annual winter closure. The dates published for that closure have not been updated, so none are given here. Tickets are 10 euro full and 7 euro reduced.

San Sebastiano opens Tuesday to Sunday 09:15 to 17:15, last entry 16:45. It is closed on Mondays, on 25 December, 1 January and Easter Day, and from 7 to 27 December 2026. Tickets are 10 euro full and 7 euro reduced, visits are led by an in-house guide, and the operator lists Italian, English, French, Spanish and German. Domitilla opens Monday and Wednesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 17:00, with Tuesday as its weekly rest day; its published dates for an annual closure have not been updated, so none are given here.

Three further catacombs in the quartiere are not on the public visiting list. The Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra opens them on written request to protocollo@arcsacra.va, for groups of no more than fifteen, at 250 euro, accompanied by a fossore for custody and an archaeologist.

Above ground: the Basilica di San Sebastiano fuori le mura opens 08:15 to 18:00 from October to March and 08:15 to 19:00 from April to September. The Mausoleo delle Fosse Ardeatine opens 08:15 to 15:15 Monday to Friday and 08:15 to 16:45 at weekends, with guided visits booked through ANFIM at info@anfim.org or +39 06 6795629. The Abbazia delle Tre Fontane complex opens every day 06:30 to 20:45; Santa Maria Scala Coeli 09:00 to 12:00 and 15:00 to 17:30; San Paolo alle Tre Fontane 07:30 to 20:00; the monastic shop Monday to Saturday 08:30 to 19:30 and Sunday 09:00 to 13:30. The green area and car park at the Ex Cartiera Latina open 08:30 to 17:00 in winter and 08:30 to 19:00 in summer, and the Tenuta di Tor Marancia is described by the state park as freely accessible. One site is shut: the Complesso di Capo di Bove has been closed to the public since 22 June 2026 for restoration works, and no reopening date has been announced.

Frequently asked questions

Are the catacombs Vatican territory?
No. They stand on Italian soil in this quartiere, and a visitor there is under Italian law. The Holy See's own published list of its extraterritorial properties in Rome names thirteen holdings and contains no catacomb, no basilica on the Appia and nothing on the via Ardeatina. What is true is a different arrangement: under article 33 of the 1929 Concordat, confirmed by article 12 of the 1984 Accordo, the Holy See retains the disponibilita of the Christian catacombs together with the burden of their custody, maintenance and conservation. The Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra governs them, the callistian complex is the property of APSA, and the Salesians of Don Bosco have run the welcome and the guided visits at San Callisto since 1930.
Which catacombs can you actually visit, and how?
Three sell tickets and run guided tours: San Callisto at Via Appia Antica 110, San Sebastiano at Via Appia Antica 136 and Domitilla at Via delle Sette Chiese 282. All three are visited with a guide rather than alone, and San Callisto requires a minimum of two people per tour. Three others in the quartiere are on the Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra's list of catacombs opened on request: the Museo di Domitilla with the Regione dei Fornai, the Museo della Torretta with the Cripte di Lucina, and the Catacomba di Vigna Chiaraviglio. Those are booked by written request to protocollo@arcsacra.va, for groups of no more than fifteen, at 250 euro, accompanied by a fossore for custody and an archaeologist. Two more, the catacombs of Balbina and of Santi Marco e Marcelliano, have no stated visiting arrangements at all.
Where is the Quo Vadis stone?
In the Cappella delle Reliquie of the Basilica di San Sebastiano fuori le mura, at Via Appia Antica 136, which is in this quartiere. The chapel was commissioned by Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, in 1625, and also holds an arrow of the martyrdom and the column Sebastian was bound to. The small church of the Domine Quo Vadis, at the fork where the via Ardeatina leaves the Appia, is in Appio-Latino; the slab shown there is a copy of the stone in San Sebastiano.
Can you go inside the Abbazia delle Tre Fontane?
Yes. The abbey's own site gives the complex as open every day from 06:30 to 20:45, and it publishes hours for each church: Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio, the abbey church, on the same 06:30 to 20:45; Santa Maria Scala Coeli 09:00 to 12:00 and 15:00 to 17:30; and San Paolo alle Tre Fontane, which the abbey calls San Paolo al Martirio, 07:30 to 20:00. The monastic shop opens Monday to Saturday 08:30 to 19:30 and Sunday 09:00 to 13:30, and the porter's lodge keeps its own hours. The community is Trappist, that is Cistercians of the Strict Observance. The abbey brews beer, but no source states any brewery visit or taproom, so none is described here.
What is at the Fosse Ardeatine?
The pozzolana quarries on via Ardeatina where German occupation forces shot 335 people on 24 March 1944, in reprisal for the partisan attack in via Rasella, and the memorial built over them. The sacrario holds 335 granite sacelli, in seven double rows in the order the bodies were exhumed, plus one more dedicated to the Martiri d'Italia; 328 of the dead are identified and seven are unknown, and 70 of the 335 were Jews. A museum of relics and documents sits inside the complex, behind the monumental slab. The site opens 08:15 to 15:15 Monday to Friday and 08:15 to 16:45 at weekends, and ANFIM runs the guided visits.
Is there anything here that is free?
Several things. The Parco archeologico dell'Appia antica states that the Tenuta di Tor Marancia, two hundred hectares of Roman countryside with three entrances, is freely accessible. The Museo Condominiale di Tor Marancia is twenty-two murals painted on eleven blocks of a housing estate and is looked at from the street. The green area and car park at the Ex Cartiera Latina, the regional park's headquarters at Via Appia Antica 42, open daily without a ticket, and the park outside Forte Ardeatino has been open to the public since May 2006. The eight churches of the modern quartiere, from the Chiesa dell'Annunziatella, whose internal inscription is dated 12 August 1220, to San Josemaria Escriva of 1996, are places of worship rather than ticketed sites.

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