 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Towering Walls of Death
The Catacombe di San Callisto (Catacombs of St. Callixtus) on Rome's Appian Way
A fresco of "The Good Shepherd" in the Catacomb of St. Calixtus in Rome, Italy
The catacombs of St. Calixtus has the biggest parking lot, and hence the largest crowds of tour bus groups—and the cheesiest, most Disneyesque tour, full of canned commentary and stilted jokes.
On the other hand, some of the tunnels are phenomenal: 70 feet high and less than six feet wide, pigeon-holed by elongated tomb niches all the way up to the ceiling. Cool.
Of all the catacombs, those of San Callisto are among the oldest and certainly the largest (12 miles of tunnels over 33 acres and five levels that house the remains of half a million Christians), and were the final resting place of 16 early popes.
For general info on the catacombs, click here. For info on how to get to the catacombs, see the main Appian Way page.
On the tour, you also get to ogle some of the earliest Christian art—frescoes, carvings, and drawings scratched into the rock depicting ancient Christian symbols like the fish, the anchor, the dove, and images that tell some of the earliest popular Bible stories.
Via Appia Antica 110–126
www.catacombe.roma.it, tel. 06-5130-1580
Closed Wednesdays and in February
Related Articles |
Outside Resources |
This article was last updated in January 2007. All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998–2008 by Reid Bramblett. All rights reserved.
