The Ancient Appian Way through archaeology, faith and nature

This slow route through the heart of the Appian Way Regional Park starts from the Porta San Sebastiano square, south of the historic centre. The park was recognised as an institution in 1988, and since then, the entity has been responsible for the maintenance and tourist promotion of the first 11 Roman miles (about 16 kilometers) of the Appian Way. Of these 16 kilometres, you will cover the first 4, discovering age-old testimonies to Roman archaeology, art, history and landscape

Porta San Sebastiano is among the most impressive and best-preserved entrances in the great walls built at the time of the Emperor Aurelius: a defensive wall of about 19 kilometres (although some sections are now in critical condition), inaugurated in 275 AD. In Porta San Sebastiano, you will find the wall museum permanent exhibition, which tells the story of the defensive methods adopted over the centuries by the Roman citizens to protect their city.

Proceeding south, you will begin to notice archaeological remains around you, such as tombs, fountains and walls, which indicate that you are on the right path: centuries of Roman history overlap along the Appian Way, leaving their indelible mark on the area. At the junction between Via Ardeatina and Via Appia, the Church of Domine Quo Vadis was founded in connection with an ancient religious tradition. According to the legend, the Apostle Peter was fleeing Rome on account of the persecutions imposed by the Emperor Nero, and it was in this very place that Jesus appeared to him. Peter asked him: "Domine, quo vadis?" ("Lord, where are you going?"). The response encouraged him not to give up but to go back and face his martyrdom in the name of the church he had founded.

A few steps further, by a small round aedicule known as the Chapel of Cardinal Reginald Pole, turn left into Via della Caffarella, towards the monumental tomb of Annia Regilla. Several scholars claim that Herodes Atticus, a philosopher and man of letters, had this cenotaph erected in memory of his wife, who died in the year 160 A.D. It is one of the many beautiful funerary monuments dispersed throughout the lush vegetation that surrounds the landscape of the Appian Way.

Speaking of ancient tombs, the Appian Way is home to some of the most famous early Christian burial complexes in the world. Unlike pagan religions, which ordered the cremation of the dead, Christianity imposed the practice of burying bodies to preserve them for their passage to a better life. It is for this reason that on the outskirts of the city, since the time of the Christian persecutions, people began to secretly dig tunnels and underground chambers to house the bodies of the faithful.

Along Via delle Sette Chiese, slightly to the west, you can visit the Catacombs of Domitilla. The woman who gave her name to the complex was a granddaughter of the emperor Vespasian and the original owner of this agricultural area, where, from the the 3rd to the 5th century AD, members of the first Christian communities built approximately 12 kilometres of underground tunnels. Splendid frescoes adorn the walls of the burial chambers; an entire basilica, excavated beneath the Roman pines, also commemorates the burial of Saints Nereus and Achilleus, martyrs of the persecutions ordered by the Emperor Diocletian.

You are only a short walk from the entrance to another large burial complex, the Catacombs of San Callisto. After its construction at the end of the 2nd century AD, this complex was chosen as an official cemetery by the 16th Bishop of Rome, Pope Callixtus I. An huge series of crypts and tunnels give the impression of a veritable underground city, which for centuries welcomed the bodies of the popes and martyrs of the early Roman Church.

Moving the hand of time forward several centuries from the previous monument, just a few metres from the Catacombs of San Callisto is the Fosse Ardeatine Mausoleum, which pays tribute to the victims of the Ardeatine massacre.

On this site, along the Via Ardeatina, there were some historic quarries of volcanic materials used for building purposes, known as the Fosse Ardeatine. During the German occupation of Rome, on 24 March 1944, a group of German soldiers killed 335 civilians here, hiding their bodies inside the quarry, in retaliation for an attack by partisans the previous day. Five years after the tragic event, on 24 March 1949, a solemn mausoleum was inaugurated, in eternal memory of the Roman martyrs.

A place of respectful commemoration, the shrine offers an exhibition trail telling the story of the German occupation, which lasted from September 1943 to June 1944. 

The Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le mura is part of the Seven Churches pilgrimage, a devotional itinerary of medieval origin that includes the 4 major Roman papal basilicas (St. John Lateran, St. Peter in the Vatican, St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. Mary Major) and 3 important minor basilicas (St. Lawrence Outside the Walls, the Holy Cross in Jerusalem and, of course, St. Sebastian Outside the Walls).

Due to its devotional, historical and artistic value, thousands of pilgrims and travellers visit this religious complex in the heart of the Appian Way every year, especially on the occasion of the Jubilee.

As you may have realised, it is very common to find ancient burial complexes in the subsoil of the Appian Way: S. Sebastiano fuori le mura is no exception, and reveals an impressive network of catacombs under the basilica.

According to tradition, these underground tombs also housed the body of St. Sebastian in the third century AD. The martyr's bones were later moved to the Vatican centuries later, but the basilica still retains its original name: in the first chapel on the right is preserved the column to which St Sebastian was tied during his martyrdom and one of the arrows that pierced him.

The final version of the church dates back to the early 17th century: among the many masterpieces of art kept in S. Sebastiano fuori le mura, one could not fail to include a work by the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, perhaps the greatest interpreter of the Roman Baroque. To admire his Salvator Mundi you just have to look through the niches of the right nave: this mighty marble bust, carved in 1679, is Bernini's artistic testament.

After several hours dedicated to the ancient early Christian catacombs and the Roman Catholic tradition, the itinerary ends in front of two splendid examples of ancient archaeology immersed in the blinding green of the Appian Way Regional Park.

In an era of lavish pomp and indiscriminate public spending, Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius, emperor from 306 to 312 A.D., built a large complex that is now an archaeological site that can be visited. The Maxentius complex included a residential palace, a funeral monument for members of the imperial family and a circus with a capacity of 10,000 spectators; in the centre of the circus stood an Egyptian obelisk, now located in Piazza Navona, in the historic centre of Rome.

Far older in date is the nearby Tomb of Caecilia Metella, which dates back to the Roman Republic era (1st century BC). Caecilia was the daughter of Metellus, tribune of the plebs at the time of the civil war between Pompey and Julius Caesar, and was given in marriage to General Crassus. On the original square foundations of the mausoleum rests an imposing cylindrical structure; at the beginning of the 14th century the powerful aristocratic family of the Caetani took possession of the remains of the ancient tomb of Caecilia Metella, incorporating them into the construction of a small defensive fortress, now known as Castello Caetani.