Page 19 - Clipper Cruise Book

On Thursday, we tour the Vatican Necropolis under Saint
Peter's Basilica, and below the Vatican grottoes on the ground
level of the old Constantinian basilica where the popes are

buried. It may be the most limited place for tourists to visit in
Rome as only 250 people a day are allowed in the Necropolis.

Vatican archeological excavations under Saint Peter's in 1940–
1949 revealed mausoleums of a necropolis dating to imperial
times of the first and second centuries AD. More than 1,000
body and urn burials are estimated to be in the 22 excavated
tombs

The necropolis was not originally one of the underground
Catacombs of Rome, but an open air cemetery with tombs and
mausolea used by many generations and shared by several
families.

In the early 4th century,
Emperor Constantine I decided
to honor Peter with a large
basilica. Because the precise
location of Peter's burial was so
firmly fixed in the belief of the
Christians of Rome, the basilica
had to be erected on a site that
was not convenient for
construction. The slope of the
Vatican Hill had to be excavated,
covering a cemetery to make
room for the building. The focal
point of the Basilica, both in its
original form and in its later
complete reconstruction, is the
altar located over what is said to
be the point of Peter's burial.

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