The Most Remarkable Catacombs in Italy
7 places · updated 14 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most remarkable catacombs in Italy are Catacombe dei Cappuccini, Catacomb of Priscilla and Catacombs of San Gennaro. The list covers 7 catacombs. Last updated 14 October 2026.
Italy's underground burial places span the whole history of Christianity, from the early Christian catacombs carved into soft tuff to the Baroque fascination with death, when bones and mummified bodies were displayed as a lesson in humility. Southern Italy's volcanic rock made digging easy, and its devotions kept these places alive long after their first use.
The Catacombs of San Gennaro in Naples spread over two levels, with early Christian frescoes and the former tomb of the city's patron saint. The Fontanelle Cemetery, also in Naples, is a vast ossuary in a tuff quarry, where locals once adopted and cared for anonymous skulls. The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo hold thousands of mummified bodies dressed in their own clothes, among them the strikingly preserved child Rosalia Lombardo. In Rome, the Capuchin Crypt beneath Santa Maria della Concezione arranges the bones of friars into chandeliers and patterns.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Catacombe dei Cappuccini | Catacombs | |
| 2 | Catacomb of Priscilla | Catacombs | |
| 3 | Catacombs of San Gennaro | Catacombs | |
| 4 | Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter | Catacombs | |
| 5 | Catacombs of Domitilla | Catacombs | |
| 6 | Fontanelle cemetery | Catacombs | |
| 7 | Capuchin Crypt | Catacombs |
01 Catacombe dei Cappuccini
Italy · 1.9 km from Palermo38.112° N 13.339° E
Giacomo Palermo · CC BY-SA 4.0 Since 2007 the Sicily Mummy Project has studied the bodies with X-rays and CT scans, recovering information about age, sex, health and the preservation methods used, with recent work focused on identifying the children. Visitors should know what they are walking into: this is the burial ground of a working friary, the displays are open and close at hand behind grilles, and photography is not permitted. The catacombs have drawn curious travellers to the Sicilian capital for centuries, and writers from Alexandre Dumas to Guy de Maupassant came to see them.
Did you know? Rosalia Lombardo died of pneumonia in December 1920, a week before her second birthday; her case is kept at a constant 20°C and 65% humidity.
02 Catacomb of Priscilla
Catacombe di Priscilla
Italy · 4.2 km from Rome41.930° N 12.509° E
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain The cubiculum of the Velata is perhaps the most moving room: three images of the same woman, shown praying with raised arms in the orans pose and in two further scenes whose meaning scholars still debate. Here and elsewhere the catacomb has become important for studying how early Christian women were represented, from inscriptions honouring widows to figures in the frescoes that may be women. The atmosphere is quiet and close: narrow corridors lined with empty loculi, the rock the colour of old bread, and then a chamber opening with colour on its walls.
03 Catacombs of San Gennaro
Catacombe di San Gennaro
Italy · 2.5 km from Naples40.864° N 14.248° E
Dominik Matus · CC BY-SA 4.0 In 831 the Lombard prince Sico of Benevento carried off Januarius's relics during a siege, and after the bishops' remains were moved into the city the catacombs slowly fell into neglect and plunder. Grand Tour travellers rediscovered them in the eighteenth century, and during the Second World War Neapolitans used them as an air-raid shelter. Cardinal Corrado Ursi had them restored and inaugurated a new entrance in 1969, and excavations uncovered the Crypt of the Bishops and the saint's tomb. Since 2006 young people from the Sanità neighbourhood, organised in the La Paranza cooperative, have run the site, and visitor numbers rose from about 5,000 a year to 130,000 by 2018.
Did you know? Besides the basilica, the rock holds a baptismal font, a table thought to have held holy oils and possibly cells for monks or hermits.
04 Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter
Catacombe dei Santi Marcellino e Pietro
Italy · 6 km from Rome41.879° N 12.549° E
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain Above ground stands the Mausoleum of Helena, built by Constantine around 315–326 as the tomb of his mother, whose red porphyry sarcophagus is now in the Vatican Museums. Its walls were lightened with amphorae set into the concrete, which earned it the medieval nickname "Tor Pignattara", the tower of pots, the name of the whole district today.
05 Catacombs of Domitilla
Catacombe di Domitilla
Italy · 4.8 km from Rome41.859° N 12.506° E
Anonymous Unknown author · Public domain The painted chambers make the underground walk unforgettable. Among the frescoes are Christ seated among the apostles, the Good Shepherd, Noah's ark, Daniel among the lions and the story of Jonah, alongside images borrowed from the pagan world, such as Orpheus charming the animals with his lyre. In a small chamber behind the apse, a fourth-century painting shows Saint Petronilla leading a woman named Veneranda into paradise. Another burial chamber, decorated for a family of bakers or grain officials, shows the arrival and distribution of wheat in Rome.
Did you know? At the heart of the complex is a semi-underground basilica dedicated to Saints Nereus and Achilleus.
06 Fontanelle cemetery
Cimitero delle Fontanelle
Italy · 1.8 km from Naples40.858° N 14.239° E
Lalupa · CC BY-SA 3.0 What makes Fontanelle unlike any other ossuary is the devotion that grew up around it. Neapolitans adopted individual skulls, the "capuzzelle", cleaning them, housing them in little boxes and niches, and praying for the anonymous souls in purgatory in exchange for protection and favours. Local tradition holds that a skull's true name could be revealed to its keeper in a dream, and several skulls became famous in their own right. In 1969 the Church forbade the individual cult as fetishism, but the stacked skulls, the boxes and the votive shrines remain as the devotees left them.
Did you know? According to legend, the skull called the Captain has one blackened eye socket and avenged insults by appearing at the offenders' weddings.
07 Capuchin Crypt
Italy · 1 km from Rome41.905° N 12.489° E
Anil Öztas · CC BY 4.0 There are six rooms in all. The Crypt of the Resurrection frames a painting of Christ raising Lazarus with bones; the Mass Chapel, the only one without remains, holds the heart of Maria Felice Peretti, grand-niece of Pope Sixtus V. After it come the Crypt of the Skulls, the Crypt of the Pelvises, the Crypt of the Leg and Thigh Bones, and finally the Crypt of the Three Skeletons, where a skeleton set in an oval on the ceiling holds a scythe and a pair of scales, symbols of death and judgement.
Did you know? The friars whose bones line the walls died between 1528 and 1870.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most remarkable catacombs in Italy?
- On our list, Catacombe dei Cappuccini ranks first, followed by Catacomb of Priscilla and Catacombs of San Gennaro.
- What is the Fontanelle Cemetery?
- A former tuff quarry in the Sanità district of Naples that became an ossuary for victims of plague and cholera; from the 19th century it was the centre of a popular cult in which Neapolitans adopted individual skulls.
- Who is Rosalia Lombardo?
- A two-year-old girl who died in 1920 and was embalmed so well that she still looks asleep; she lies in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo.
- How many catacombs are on this list in Italy?
- The list covers 7 catacombs.