Vatican Necropolis
The Vatican necropolis is located directly below the St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City in Rome. The necropolis was a Roman burial site and is after 1600 years again only since the excavations in the 1950s accessible. In the Vatican Necropolis is the presumed grave of the apostle Peter. The Vatican Necropolis is not to be confused with the Vatican Grottoes. The latter resulted from the construction of St. Peter's and located on the ground level of the former Constantinian basilica.
History
Emergence of the necropolis
The Vatican necropolis were originally a burial ground next to a building constructed by Emperor Caligula Circus at the southern slopes of the Vatican hill. In accordance with the Roman law, it was forbidden to bury the dead within the city walls. For this reason, the necropolis built along the roads outside the town. One of these roads, the Via Cornelia, was heading north along the Vatican hill. On the spine of the building built by Emperor Caligula Circus originally stood an Egyptian obelisk. This was from ancient times until 1586 in its original place and was then mixed by Domenico Fontana on the orders of Pope Sixtus V on St. Peter's Square. The original location, directly prior to the current excavation Office ( SCAVI ) of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, is marked by a plaque in the ground.
Construction of Old St. Peter
According to tradition, the Apostle Peter is in 64 or 67 have suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Nero and have been buried in the necropolis. After the Constantinian turn and the Edict of Milan began Emperor Constantine I 324 with the construction of the first St. Peter's Church (also Old St. Peter 's Basilica or Constantine ). At this time the Roman necropolis was still in use. This proves the discovery of a coin in an urn from the year 318 During this time, the necropolis were under a special legal protection and were untouchable. Nevertheless, the Emperor Constantine I decided to build a basilica, which was located just above the presumed grave of the apostle Peter. In order to obtain a suitably large area for the planned construction, arranged to Emperor Constantine I to ablate parts of the building of the necropolis as well as parts of the Vatican hill. With the removed material of the Vatican hill the necropolis was, with the exception of Peter tomb filled. By this measure, the necropolis was exposed in its nearly 2,000 -year history, only for around two to three centuries to daylight and after the construction of Old St. Peter no longer accessible.
Excavations
The first excavations of the necropolis found during the pontificate of Pius XII. in the years 1940 to 1949 instead. The aim of this excavation was to find the grave of Peter beneath St. Peter's Basilica. In the course of research, a number of mausoleums were excavated. The mausoleums found were estimated in the initial phase of the excavations with the Greek alphabet with Φ (phi ), Χ (chi ) and Ψ (Psi ). Later Latin letters were used in the labeling. Some of these mausoleums, however, was already known in the Middle Ages and was sometimes opened. The Mausoleum M was already described in 1574, the Mausoleum O was during the construction of the foundation for the statue of Pope Pius VI. opened. The mausoleums R and S were discovered when the southern part of the foundation for the baldachin by Gian Lorenzo Bernini was created.
First, the Mausoleum A was built. In a later episode, the mausoleums B, C, D and E were built next to each other in rapid succession. The mausoleum G falls very likely in the same time as Mausoleum B, while the mausoleum F probably during the reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius ( 138-161 ) was constructed. These seven mausoleums were built in a row, as free-standing buildings with different heights and form an approximately 32 meter long road. In the reign of Emperor Hadrian 's mausoleum O was built. In later times the space of the mausoleums G to O was filled with other buildings. All the buildings are lined up in a straight line along a path. Only Mausoleum H, from the second half of the 2nd century, here is an exception and breaks through the way due to a pre-built atrium. During this time the circus was no longer in use. Thus this was no longer an obstacle to the spread of the necropolis to the south. The Circus was built over by this time with different graves. A grave from the same time as the construction of mausoleum H was found near the foundation of the obelisk. When the Circus was canceled finally, was compared to the already existing series of mausoleums another, namely the mausoleums Z, Phi, Chi and Psi. The built in the period from the end of the 2nd century to the middle of the 3rd century mausoleums were also free-standing buildings. All buildings except the Mausoleum R1 had their entrance to the south, in the direction of the Circus and the Via Cornelia.
The mausoleums have been shared by generations of one or even several families. So found themselves alone in Mausoleum F 120 burials and mausoleum in H is at least 170 An approximate calculation of the number of body and urn burials in the 22 excavated tombs yielded a number of more than 1000 burials. This large number is due to the high infant mortality and low life expectancy in the 2nd century. The former owner of six mausoleums (A, C, H, L, N and O) can be identified on the basis of inscriptions above the entrance. Mausoleum N is an example of how these have been used by different families at the same time. The inscription reports that N mausoleum built by Marcus Aebutius Charito was bought a half from Lucius Volusius Successus and Volusia Megiste.
Peter grave (field P)
The name field P (Campus Petri ) is the small area in which is located the suspected grave of the apostle Peter. At this point, Peter was, according to tradition, after his martyrdom in Circus under the reign of the Emperor Nero, buried. Around 100 years after the death of Peter's a shrine was erected over his grave. This shrine is adjacent to the so-called red wall. Immediately surrounding the suspected grave of Peter some tombs were found. The arrangement of the graves suggests that the site of Peter the tomb very early on was worship. Called The shrine, also called " Tropaion of Gaius ", is named after the time of the Pope Zephyrinus ( 198-217 ) living in Rome presbyters and theologians Gaius of Rome. From this is follows ( in Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History II ,25,5 - 7) provides:
"I can show the tropaia of the Apostles. Because if you go to the Vatican or on the road to Ostia, you'll find the tropaia of those who founded this church. "
The Greek term used by Gaius Tropaion however usually designated a monument or memorial of victory. Only Eusebius interpreted the quote 100 years later as an indication of tombs. On the right side of the " Tropaion of Gaius " is attached at right angles, the so-called graffiti wall, named after the large number of Latin graffiti. Was built in the graffiti wall in the second half of the 3rd century. During the excavations no remains of the Apostle Peter were found in the suspected grave. There were, however, remains found in the graffiti wall, in a lined with marble opening. The archaeologist Margherita Guarducci surmised that the mortal remains of the Apostle Peter were removed from his original grave and placed in this opening during the period of construction of the Constantinian Basilica. The archaeologist pointed inscriptions in the wall behind the pillar monument, including the letters PETR ... EN I, as a designation of Peter relics. At other excavation sites in Rome, however, found similar graffiti that occupy only a commemoration of Christians in Peter and Paul martyred there. The remains of the ancient shrine and the graffiti wall are now hidden behind the paneling of the Baroque Palliennische.
Guides
The Vatican Necropolis and Peter grave can be visited on guided tours. To visit a permission of the Ufficio Scavi is necessary. This requires a prior written notification is required. To preserve the archaeological excavations in the long term, the number of visitors per day is limited.