Catacombe di San Callisto

Catacombs Rome, Italy

The catacombs of San Callisto are part of the so-called Callistian complex, an area of about 30 hectares between the Via Appia Antica, the Via Ardeatina and the Via delle Sette Chiese, in Rome, which houses various funerary areas and catacombs.

Located just after the Church of Quo Vadis, tens of martyrs, sixteen pontiffs and many Christians were buried in them. They were named after the deacon Callixtus who, at the beginning of the third century, was appointed by Pope Zephyrinus as the administrator of the cemetery and so became the official cemetery of the Church of Rome. In the first century Rome's Christians did not have their own cemeteries.If they owned land, they buried their relatives there, otherwise they resorted to common cemeteries, where pagans too were buried.