Catacomb of Callixtus
The St. Callistus catacombs (also Callistus Catacomb Catacombs of San Callisto Italian ) between Via Appia Antica, Via Sette Chiese Vicolo delle Ardeatina and is one of about sixty ancient underground tombs systems in Rome. This Coemeterium Calixti ( resting place of Calixtus ) was the first Christian Gemeindekatakombe and is named after the Bishop of Rome Callistus I ( † 222), who was still involved as a deacon with the management of the entire system and during his pontificate ( 217-222 ) let expand.
Architectural History
Along the Appian Way stretched before the use by Christians pagan burial sites from which, however, were created above ground. Maybe the private property of the family of Caecilier to arise, the site of the future catacomb middle of the second century passed into the direct administration of the church. The reserved for Christian catacomb has arisen in the wake of several subsequently interconnected regions, that is, from smaller installations grave with corridors, chambers and vertical shafts for lighting and ventilation. It extends beneath an area of about 15 ha, range, spread over four levels, up to 20 m deep into the ground and has an underground extension of approximately 20 kilometers on. There are an estimated 370,000 graves in the Catacomb ( through reuse, the number of burials far estimated over a million ), is hands down the funeral of a hundred martyrs and sixteen bishops. The first church grave condition, but also the many and important tombs and murals and graffiti because of St. Callistus catacombs are of particular importance.
From the fifth century the aboveground burial sparked the underground gradually. However, the catacombs were well attended with their martyrs and saints' tombs until the eighth century as places of pilgrimage. In the second half of the fifth century a (now missing however ) basilica was built on the site. There was previously smaller mausoleums or warehouses, all of which referred to two tricora, three-membered Apsisbauten are also disposed of. Destruction in the Italian wars between Goths, Vandals and Oströmern and dilapidation led but to transfer the relics vulnerable to urban churches. The grave no longer required underground facilities have been due to lack of visibility forget the entrances collapsed or were overgrown. Later, the area was used for viticulture. It was not until 1844/49 was the archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi clues to the location of St. Callistus catacombs, whose existence was confirmed by excavations in 1852. A contiguous area the size of 34 ha, in Calixtus complex ( where the underground cemeteries of the Holy Soteris, Saint Marcus, Marcellinus and Damasus, and finally the are of Balbina ), was until 1920, bought by the Vatican; the supervision worried 1884-1936 Trappist monks, since the Salesians of Don Bosco together with external staff. They have two offices on the premises. The scientific support and research done by the Pontifical Commission formed in 1852 for Christian Archaeology ( Pontificia Commissione di Archeological Sacra ).
Parts of the catacomb
The oldest parts form the region of the Popes with their crypt and that of the Holy Caecilia and the crypts of Lucina from the second and early third century. The 1854 discovered Crypt of the Popes is the most important historical and spiritually significant place the catacomb dar. The end of the second century, was originally a private grave chamber space was remodeled in the third century to the crypt and served in accordance with tradition as grave lay for nine popes (out of five are still broken grave plates obtained ) and eight other ecclesiastical dignitaries. In the fourth century, Pope Damasus I in the crypt of a church altar room with two skylights, columns and architraves expand, of which only remnants remain. The neighboring crypt is named after the holy Caecilia, whose body was transferred to the 821 dedicated to her church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. The room is equipped with mosaics and murals, including a statue of Saint Cecilia in prayer position. In a large niche a copy of the Baroque statue of St. Stefano Maderno was erected. The region of the Popes eventually include the Sacrament chapels and five family grave chambers with frescoes on Baptism and Eucharist. The crypts of Lucina are named after a Roman, the Bishop Cornelius had left buried under Liber Pontificalis in a separate until the fourth century family grave system. The found in the 1840s, grave slab of a martyr revered by the ancient Christians Cornelius enabled until the rediscovery and identification of Lucina crypts and in general the entire St. Callistus catacombs.
Other regions, each with many significant crypts are that of St. Miltiades (established mid-third century ), Saint Caius and St. Eusebius ( end of the third century ), the Western (first half of the fourth century ) and the Liberian region (second half of the fourth century ). These later systems have some very large meeting rooms that could provide several dozen people for fairs and suppers place. The catacombs have been increasingly applied in this period as complex systems of intersecting at right angles gallery transitions, the grave Insert consuming equipped ( arcosoliums instead of simple niches, columns and pilasters, tons and dome ); not least came marble panels and inscriptions on for chapel -like tombs of the martyrs advanced. The increasing influx of believers corresponded to the construction of direct access shafts and stairs such as in the Lucina crypts.
Image finds
The picture finds and well over two thousand inscriptions of the catacombs are of particular importance. They indicate the ancient life circumstances as well as early Christian beliefs and rites. So there is the first epigraphic evidence of the salutation of the Bishop of Rome as a Papa ( Pope ) in connection with the grave of Pope Damasus I. Also syncretic ideas not missing, it appears the mythological Phoenix as a symbol of the Christian resurrection, a ceiling painting shows the in Orphism revered Okeanos. The full range of professional world is reflected in the epigraphs, the call in addition to the age of the deceased persons and their activities. Apart from the actual grave inscriptions appear most frequently in the vicinity of martyrs graves Graffiti: Visitors or fossores ( employed in the catacombs miners ) with nails scratched their names and invocations to saints and your beloved deceased persons in the plaster.