Secrets Beneath Rome: Capuchin Crypt and Catacombs Tour

Tour Overview

Hidden deep beneath Rome lies a mysterious underground world of ancient catacombs and eerie bone crypts. Steel your nerves, and join us for a spellbinding journey into this haunting subterranean world on our Underground Rome tour! Discover the origins of Christianity in the labyrinthine tunnels of the Roman catacombs, where popes, saints and martyrs were laid to rest far from prying pagan eyes, and take a brief stroll on the evocative ancient Appian Way. Then prepare yourself for a shock as we descend into the spine-chilling Capuchin crypt across town. Here, in the eerie half-light of dusty chambers beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione, generations of Capuchin monks reflected on their mortality by creating macabre artworks from the bones of their deceased fellow friars - a vivid reminder that death comes to us all in the end. With minibus transportation included throughout, our Underground Rome tour is the perfect way to see a fascinating hidden side of the Eternal City in total comfort!

Tour Description

Discover a mysterious world hidden beneath Rome

To understand Rome, we have to dig downwards. As we walk the streets of the modern city, there are other worlds - rich and strange and distant - hidden beneath our feet. Invisible to those not in the know, this is a world of ancient customs and new religions, of cruel persecutions and bizarre rituals that will make your hair stand on end. On this tour we will be journeying downwards, uncovering secret subterranean crypts and hidden catacombs buried by the passage of time. The spread-out nature of these sites means that it would be difficult to visit them together without transportation - that’s why we’ve taken care of all the practical details, providing comfortable, air-conditioned transfers between the stops as well as skip-the-line tickets to the Roman catacombs and Capuchin Crypt.

Explore Rome’s underground land of the dead in the Catacombs

After meeting your guide and vehicle at a convenient location in central Rome, we’ll be heading out to the catacombs just outside the impressive ancient city walls to begin our journey into underground Rome. This extensive network of tunnels, passages and galleries were carved into the soft bedrock here nearly 2,000 years ago: learn how the city’s earliest Christian communities excavated these secret spaces so that they could bury their dead where they would remain undisturbed by the pagan authorities hostile to the new religion. 

Try not to be afraid of the dark as we descend into this mysterious land of the dead, and remember that death was not the end for these early believers. To understand these silent memorials in all their complexity, we must understand that they are as much celebrations of a glorious birth rather than commemorations of a sad death. In the shapes and forms of the stunning wall-paintings, carvings and inscriptions that survive in these tunnels, we will gain a unique insight into the world of the late Roman empire and early Christianity. With the help of our expert guide, you will come to understand the philosophies and thoughts that animated these spaces millennia ago.

Walk in the footsteps of history on the ancient Appian Way

It was forbidden to bury bodies within the city walls in ancient Rome, and so Rome’s catacombs are located along the principal roads that led out of the metropolis in antiquity. Foremost amongst these was the Appian Way, known to the ancient world as the ‘Queen of Roads.’ Still paved with its original flagstones, today the Appian Way is one of the most evocative monuments to the majesty of ancient Rome. On our tour we’ll have the chance to take a look at the now peaceful road as it meanders its way through the umbrella pines of the Roman countryside, flanked by tombs and monuments. 

Although it’s a wonderfully tranquil spot today, in antiquity the Appian Way was a hive of activity - discover how the fearsome legions of ancient Rome once marched along these stones to all corners of the empire, and learn why magnificent ancient funerary monuments still line the picturesque road today.

Uncover the shocking secrets of the macabre Capuchin Crypt

Across the city, in the crypt of the Capuchin monks beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione, we will encounter a very different underground Christian space. Over the course of some three centuries, the bodies of almost 4,000 Capuchin monks were interred in the church’s crypt - but the corpses weren’t placed in tombs and coffins. Far from it.

Instead, as we explore the tiny rooms of the crypt, we are greeted with the bizarre sight of the friars’ bones arranged into patterns and artworks of dizzying complexity. Why? The crypt is a dramatic and macabre statement of one of the core beliefs of the Capuchin order: terrestrial life is transient, and death will inevitably come to us all, whoever we were in life. It’s indescribably eerie to be surrounded by the glaring and grinning skeletons of the monks in the atmospheric surroundings of the crypt - an unforgettable experience that you can’t miss when in Rome!

Travel in comfort between the sites

Rome might be our favourite city in the world, but with its unique topography, fierce sunshine and challenging public transport we know that it’s not always the easiest place to get around. To take the stress out of your day, we’ll be providing comfortable, climate-controlled transportation to transfer you and your guide between the sites we’ll be visiting on our Underground Rome tour. Oh, and of course tickets and skip-the-line access are included as standard, meaning all you have to do is sit back and enjoy your tour!