Catacombe di San Callisto

Part of the callistian complex, an area of about thirty hectares between via Appia Antica, via Ardeatina and via delle Sette Chiese, with fifteen hectares of cemetery and galleries running to nearly twenty kilometres. Sixteen popes and more than fifty martyrs were buried here. The Cripta dei Papi carries the original Greek inscriptions of Pontian, Anterus, Fabian, Lucius I and Eutychian, the tomb of Sixtus II, and the metric inscription of Pope Damasus cut in the lettering devised by the calligrapher Furius Dionysius Filocalus. The adjoining crypt of St Cecilia keeps frescoes of the early ninth century; her relics were removed by Paschal I in 821. The Cubicoli dei Sacramenti open off a gallery of the late second century, and two apsed funerary buildings survive above ground. Open 09:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 17:00, with tours every 30 minutes lasting about 40 minutes, a minimum of two people, and the ticket desk closing at 16:50. 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 10 euro full, 7 euro reduced. ATAC 118 and 218.