Overview
A special trip to the city’s underground where faith meets mystery
Under the ground in Naples you can discover the thousand-year history of this city and the Christian cult linked to its patron Saint Gennaro. Led by guides in period costumes, you can visit the catacombs, dug into the tufa stone, to admire an artistic heritage ranging from pagan times to Byzantine paintings. The Catacombs of San Gennaro, in the Sanità district where the Italian comedian Totò was born, are among the largest and most important in southern Italy, where the remains of the patron saint of Naples are located. The Basilica, with single nave, still preserves a bishop's chair carved into the rock and the altar, where the faithful can venerate and pray at the saint’s tomb. Holy Mass is still celebrated there today. The catacombs are the place that connects the city of the living to that of the dead, because the people of Naples have always had a devotion to the afterlife and to deceased souls.
Another early Christian cemetery can be found under the Basilica Santa Maria della Sanità, where the Catacombs of San Gaudioso are located. Other catacombs are linked to the memory of Bishop San Severo, with frescoes and mosaics from the 4th and 5th centuries depicting Christian symbols such as fish, lamb, and vines. In Naples’ underground world, you descend into a parallel dimension housing sacred places waiting to be discovered.
