Sepolcreto della via Ostiense

A Roman burial ground along the via Ostiense, inside Parco Ildefonso Schuster, kept by the Sovrintendenza Capitolina under its official name Sepolcreto della via Ostiense. Booking is obligatory on 060608, 09:00 to 19:00, with a maximum of 25 people per visit; admission is 4.00 euro full and 3.00 euro reduced, free for residents of Rome and the metropolitan area on production of identification and for MIC card holders, and a guided tour is not included. The Sovrintendenza states that the area is accessible to disabled visitors. The sector by the Rupe di San Paolo opened to the public on Wednesday 8 July 2026, 18:00 to 19:30, last entry 19:00; it holds nine burials, seen from the street front and around an internal courtyard where no more than ten people are admitted at a time, and a visit to the Sepolcreto now takes in both as one hour-long route.

History

The tombs were in continuous use from the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD, and the burials show the change from cremation to inhumation, and the tombs include quadrangular columbaria. Finds were recorded from the 1700s, with discoveries in 1859 and 1872 in the vigna Villani at the corner of via Ostiense and via delle Sette Chiese; a collector trench dug in 1897 and 1898 destroyed many burials but produced a great deal of epigraphy; the widening of via Ostiense in 1917 and 1918 documented the surviving sector, and a further widening in 1933 exposed the tombs now visible. The 1917-18 sector was roofed, restored and annexed to the green space of Parco Schuster for the Great Jubilee of 2000. The Rupe sector's display includes full-size reproductions of three frescoed lunettes, with new lighting and interpretive panels.

History

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