Catacombs of Rome

The catacombs of Rome were the underground places of burial S in which the Christian S of Rome, in particular, buried their deaths at the time of the first centuries after Jesus-Christ.

The original name of these places was “Cœmeteria” ( dormitories ). The term “catacomb” could come from a graeco-latin hybrid expression, but it is only as from 10th century that the expression became a generic name for this kind of underground Christian cemetery.

The most important catacombres were Christian born, but they also existed about it for the Juif S and the pagan.

History

The first Catacombe S were dug as of third century BC apart from the old enclosure of the walls (along the ways of access to Rome), to respect the Roman law obliging to bury or incinerate the Cadavre S outside the Ville: it is the limit of the Pomœrium . In this direction they took again the old practice of the Étrusques. In fact only one of these Cimetière S bore the name of Catacombe, that of San Adriano on the Via Appia whose entry was located at the bottom of a depression, a combe.

This place became then, at the 4th century, a place of pilgrimage to honor the Martyr S with Rome. However according to historians the use of the catacombs by the Christians to hide at the time of persecutions would not be established, they admit only that the Christians used them to celebrate their religious rites at the time of the funeral of their co-religionists.

At the 6th century, the catacombs ceased little by little being places of burials, but remained a certain time of the places of devotion, attested by many the Graffiti left by the pilgrims on the tombs of the Martyr S. Cependant, in front of the difficulties and the dangers met in these galleries, the Christians started to transfer the bodies from their martyrs to the great day in the churches, and the practice was lost to attend these undergrounds.

However, some catacombs remained always known and venerated places of veneration, the such catacombs of San Sebastiano, San Lorenzo, San Pancrazio and San Valentino.

Galleries

They were prolonged without plan, until a 5 or 6 meters height, superimposed on several levels, being inserted up to 20 meters. The corridors were extremely narrow (60 to 80 cm).

One counts today an about sixty catacombs, sheltering thousands of tombs, distributed on a hundred kilometers. Each principal gallery is intersected with secondary galleries which form a true network. In the Catacombs of San Sebastiano, the galleries extend on more than twelve kilometers. The 52 known catacombs on the whole develop their galleries on more than 600 kilometers.

The galleries give access to funerary rooms, called Crypte ( crypta ), some contained fall it from a Martyr or were intended for the celebration of liturgical ceremonies and birthdays of the late ones. These crypts were frequently decorated with stuccos or expressive and rich paintings of chromatic contrasts. For these decorations the symbols of the new faith were often used: the fish, the olive-tree, bread, branches, the vine, the dove and the boat. The most known crypt is the Crypte of the Popes.

Along the galleries are dug rectangular niches where the bodies were deposited. The niches which closed again the burials, were covered by a door with marble or wood. The majority of these niches could contain two or several bodies and the name of late were engraved on the plate. This type of burials named Loculus . Later of Loculi one dug in the vaults, under the pavements and even in the staircases.

Certain niches, named arcosoliums , were vaster and more looked after tombs and carried decorations. Above the tomb, dug in the Tuf there was an arc, from where them name. Later they were built and hones it which recovered fall it, laid out with horizontal could be used as furnace bridge to celebrate the Messe.

The catacombs could be enlightened by some rare ventilators, of the oil lamps, the Candélabre S, the suspended lanterns.

See too

Books

The catacombs of Rome were described by Antonio Bosio, Giovanni Gaetano Bottari and Louis Perret, Paris, 1853 - 1857.

Gallery of images

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