We all know the catacombs, at least by hearsay. We have many ideas in mind and, unfortunately, many are the result of legends, to the point of being completely wrong. So your tour guide in Rome has decided to talk a bit about these underground galleries that have inspired travelers, pilgrims, and artists from all centuries. This is the first part of this in-depth analysis, which will continue with a second part next week. Let's delve into the depths of these underground tunnels that cut through the subsoil of the Eternal City for miles and miles. 

The catacombs of Rome are fascinating, mysterious, dark. They are holy places, places of memory, historical places. History, literature, and cinema have made an image of the catacombs that, however, does not exactly correspond to reality. First of all, let's debunk the myth that tells us how these underground galleries were used by Christians to hide because of persecutions. The catacombs were not at all secret and unknown to the Romans and their government, on the contrary! The catacombs are nothing but underground cemeteries also used by the Christian community, which since the 2nd century A.D., began to use them to lay to rest the mortal remains of their deceased. Originally, in fact, the catacombs could be considered as koimeteria, that is, dormitories where the dead could wait, in their eternal sleep, for the resurrection. A big difference compared to purely pagan religious traditions, using the derogatory term that Christians used in the past. Christians wanted something that was exclusively theirs to the point that, by the end of the 2nd century, the Christian Church itself decided to open and directly manage a catacomb complex (pope Zephyrinus, at the beginning of the 3rd century A.D., for example, entrusted the catacombs to the deacon Callisto, who later also became a pontiff, and the catacombs took their name from the deacon). More and more galleries were gradually excavated, creating a network of kilometers and kilometers of tunnels still not completely excavated and discovered today. Christians relied on the fossors, a real category of professional diggers who only did one thing in life: to dig. A great boost to the development of the catacombs was given by Constantine and his openness to Christianity but, above all, by pope Damasus who, in the 4th century, established a true cult of martyrs and catacombs. It was he, in fact, who modernized and expanded many catacombs, built skylights whose light could hit specific tombs and loculi, opened real mausoleums, and above all, gave a decisive impetus to the cult of martyrs, men and women who, during persecutions, gave their own lives to reach where the 4th century Christian community was at that time: free to express their worship. This is the moment when the catacombs became places of pilgrimage, with the establishment of proper itinera ad corpos. The galleries were restored and made a bit more comfortable to allow pilgrims to come into physical contact with the mortal remains of the martyrs and more. Sadly, this way, only the catacombs, or sections of them, hosting martyrs were favored. Other catacombs, unfortunately, were almost abandoned and, so to say, forgotten and mistreated.

This brief overview helps us understand the evolution of the catacombs and how they, from mere burial places, became something more. This is why, even today, the catacombs have an almost magnetic charm, because they tell us about the early stages of the Christian community in Rome, which right here, in the catacombs, initially developed its figurative art, representing for the first time its saints or its symbols, starting from those Christological ones (like this). Moreover, visiting a catacomb in Rome also means understanding how the Roman world and the Christian one came into intimate contact, so much so that here, in the catacombs, one can see examples of pagan figures used as Christian symbols (as you can read here, regarding a arcosolium at the Catacombs of Saints Peter and Marcellinus). In the second part, we will delve deeper, not only metaphorically, into the underground environment of the catacombs, breathing the humidity of the area and all that sacredness that, even today, has not been lost.