A catacomb is an underground burial place, typically consisting of tunnels and chambers carved into rock where the dead were placed in wall niches. The word originally referred to a specific network of tombs near Rome along the Appian Way, between the 2nd and 3rd mile markers, where the bodies of apostles Paul and Peter were said to have been laid. Over time, the term expanded to describe any subterranean cemetery, from the vast Christian networks beneath Rome to the ossuary tunnels under Paris.
Where the Word Comes From
The English word “catacomb” traces back through Old English and Late Latin to the term catacumbae, which likely derives from the Latin cata tumbas, meaning “at the graves.” The original catacombs were a burial region along Rome’s Appian Way, and the name was so closely tied to that specific place that it functioned almost as a proper noun for centuries. It wasn’t until around 1836 that English speakers began using “catacomb” as a general term for any underground burial space, including the famous bone-filled tunnels of Paris.
Why People Buried the Dead Underground
Underground burial wasn’t a Christian invention. The Etruscans, Jews, and Romans all placed their dead in subterranean spaces. But early Christians developed the practice on a much larger scale, carving out vast communal cemeteries designed to hold an entire community’s dead in one place. The early Christian term for these spaces was coemeterium, from the Greek word for “dormitory,” reflecting the belief that death was a temporary sleep before resurrection.
The communal design mattered theologically. The simplest and most common type of burial niche, called a loculus, was deliberately humble and uniform. This egalitarian approach reflected the early Christian belief that all members of the community were equal in death. Wealthier or more prominent individuals sometimes received more elaborate tombs, but the baseline was intentionally modest. Christians also sought to bury their dead as close as possible to the tombs of martyrs, believing that physical nearness to a saint’s body would translate into spiritual closeness in the afterlife.
How Catacombs Were Built
Catacombs weren’t constructed from scratch in most cases. Workers often started with existing quarries, particularly in Rome, where tunnels carved to extract a volcanicite called pozzolana (used in Roman concrete) were repurposed as burial corridors. From these starting points, workers called fossors dug further, creating branching networks of narrow galleries that could extend for miles underground and reach multiple levels deep.
Three main types of burial spaces appear throughout catacombs:
- Loculi: Rectangular niches cut horizontally into gallery walls, stacked several high like shelves. Each held one body and was sealed with a stone slab or tiles. These were the most common and simplest burial type.
- Arcosolia: Arched recesses carved into the wall above a flat stone shelf where the body rested. These were more prestigious than loculi and often decorated with paintings or mosaics. Some held multiple bodies.
- Cubicula: Small rooms branching off the main corridors, functioning as family burial chambers. These private rooms contained multiple loculi or arcosolia and were frequently decorated with frescoes. Some of the most important early Christian artwork survives in these spaces.
Even the floors of corridors were sometimes used for burials when wall space ran out, with bodies placed beneath the walkways visitors and mourners used to navigate the tunnels.
Art and Symbols on the Walls
Catacomb paintings are among the oldest surviving examples of Christian art, with some dating to the early 3rd century. The artwork wasn’t decorative in the modern sense. Nearly every image carried a specific theological message, and the dominant theme was deliverance: the idea that God rescues the faithful from death.
The Good Shepherd is one of the most frequently repeated images, showing a young man carrying a sheep across his shoulders (a practical technique shepherds used for injured animals). The image drew on Psalm 23, the parable of the lost sheep in Luke’s Gospel, and Christ’s description of himself as a shepherd who lays down his life for his flock. After the 4th century, the shepherd sometimes took on the features of Peter, reflecting his charge to “feed my sheep.”
The orant, a figure standing with arms raised in prayer, appears throughout catacomb art and is almost always depicted as a woman, even in male burial chambers. She represented the soul in prayer, either asking for deliverance or giving thanks for it, and sometimes depicted the deceased praying on behalf of the living. The story of Lazarus being raised from the dead appears more than fifty times across catacomb paintings, reinforcing the theme that God holds power over death. The story of Jonah, swallowed and then released, carried a similar message and was linked to Christ’s resurrection.
One of the best-preserved examples is the cubiculum of Velata in Rome, decorated with paintings from the second half of the 3rd century that depict the marriage, motherhood, and death of the woman buried inside, creating a biographical narrative rare for the period.
The Most Famous Catacombs
Rome
Rome has over sixty known catacombs, forming a network of tunnels that stretches across the outskirts of the ancient city. The galleries were carved into the soft volcanic rock outside the city walls (Roman law prohibited burial within the city). Some of the most significant include the Catacombs of San Sebastiano along the Appian Way, the original site that gave all catacombs their name, and the Catacombs of Priscilla, which contain some of the earliest known depictions of the Virgin Mary. The cubicula “of the Sacraments,” dating to the first decades of the 3rd century, preserve some of the oldest paintings in any catacomb.
Rome’s catacombs fell out of regular use after the 5th century, when burials shifted to churches and churchyards. Many entrances were lost and the tunnels forgotten for centuries before systematic rediscovery began in the 16th century.
Paris
The Paris Catacombs are a different kind of underground burial space. They originated not as purpose-built tombs but as limestone quarries that were converted into an ossuary in the late 18th century, when the city’s overcrowded cemeteries became a public health crisis. The remains of over 6 million people were transferred into the tunnels and arranged into the now-iconic walls of stacked skulls and bones. Unlike Rome’s catacombs, where bodies were placed in individual niches, the Paris ossuary is a mass repository where bones from different cemeteries were reorganized and displayed.
Beyond Rome and Paris
Catacombs also exist in Sicily, Naples, Malta, Alexandria in Egypt, and several other Mediterranean sites. Sicily’s catacombs stand out for their monumental scale, with large corridors and oversized burial chambers that differ from the tighter Roman tunnels. Naples preserves catacomb arcosolia and cubicula decorated with both paintings and mosaics, making it one of the most important sites for early Christian art outside Rome.
Visiting Catacombs Today
Several catacombs in Rome and Paris are open to the public, though access is tightly controlled. In Rome’s catacombs, visitors must be accompanied by an official guide at all times. You cannot explore independently, bring a private guide, or wander from designated paths. Photography and video are prohibited inside. Tours typically last about 40 minutes.
The physical environment is worth preparing for. Temperatures inside Rome’s catacombs sit around 17°C (63°F) year-round, with very high humidity. The route at the Catacombs of San Sebastiano includes about 70 irregular stone steps with no elevator and nowhere to sit, making the visit impractical for anyone with serious mobility issues. Wheelchair access is not available due to the narrow, uneven corridors. Groups are capped at around 45 people to protect both the monuments and visitor safety.
Water infiltration, humidity fluctuations, and the chemical effects of visitor breathing on ancient painted surfaces remain ongoing preservation concerns. The restricted access, photography bans, and group size limits exist partly to slow the environmental damage that centuries of exposure have already caused to fragile frescoes and stone carvings.