10 Cemeteries in Mediterranean That You Shouldn't Miss

Excavated below this location between the 3rd and 5th centuries CE, the Catacombs of the SS. Marcellino and Pietro house many tombs of very rich Christians who have left us wuonderful frescoes recently restored to their original splendor through laser technology. With its 18,000 square meters of galleries and chambers at about 16 meters below ground level, these catacombs represent an authentic tresure trove of Subterranean Christian Rome.

Official underground cemetery of the Church of Rome in the 3rd century AD. Around half a million Christians were buried here, among them many martyrs and 16 popes. They are named after the deacon St. Callixtus who, at the beginning of the 3rd century AD, was assigned by Pope Zephyrinus to the administration of the cemetery. Since 1930 they have been entrusted to the custody of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

The Catacombs of Priscilla, sits on the Via Salaria, with its entrance in the convent of the Benedictine Sisters of Priscilla. It is mentioned in all of the most ancient documents on Christian topography and liturgy in Rome; because of the great number of martyrs buried within it, it was called “regina catacumbarum – the queen of the catacombs.” Originally dug out from the second to fifth centuries, it began as a series of underground burial chambers, of which the most important are the “arenarium” or sand-quarry, the cryptoporticus, (an underground area to get away from the summer heat), and the hypogeum with the tombs of the Acilius Glabrio family. The noblewoman Priscilla, who granted the Church use of the property, was a member of this family; her commemoration is noted on January 16th in the Roman Martyrology, which speaks of her as a benefactor of the Christian community in Rome. This cemetery was lost like all the others after the entrances were blocked to protect it from thievery; however, it was also one of the first to be rediscovered, in the sixteenth-century. A large portion of the funerary inscription, sarcophagi, stone and bodies (presumed to be those of martyrs) were subsequently taken away; nevertheless, the catacomb does preserve some particularly beautiful and important paintings, the most significant of which are included on the regular visit.

Cemeteries are usually a part of the history of a city and they reflect the tastes and habits of a wide array of its social groups throughout time. Barcelona Cemeteries have been organizing the Cemetery Barcelona Route since 2004 as way to involve the citizen with the collective memory of the city.