Catacombs of RomeTickets, opening days and which one to visit

More than 60 early Christian and Jewish catacombs lie under Rome – kilometres of burial galleries cut into soft volcanic tuff on up to five levels, used from the 2nd to the 5th century. Only five open to visitors on anything like a regular basis, and they deliberately close on different days so that something on the Appian Way is always open. You never go down alone: admission includes a guide from the house, and the rest days, the midday closures and the annual shutdowns are all different. The Capuchin Crypt on Via Veneto, the bone chapel that English tour listings routinely file under "Rome catacombs", is a different place entirely – different owner, different ticket, no guide, and open every day.

The five catacombs and the bone chapel, compared

Tickets and prices

Nothing here is uniform. San Callisto states on its own home page that an online booking is required, for individuals and for groups of up to 15, through the link on its booking page; the Pontifical Commission has delegated online sales to Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, which it names as the only authorised seller. San Sebastiano gives you two routes – reserve free of charge and pay €10 at the door, or buy online for €12; the free reservation lapses 15 minutes before the tour starts. Priscilla puts every visitor through a booking form in which you choose your language first and then see the times that go with it. Domitilla sells at the desk and takes requests through a form. Sant'Agnese recommends booking by e-mail or online and takes cash at the catacomb office.

Official prices

• San Callisto, San Sebastiano, Domitilla, Priscilla, Sant'Agnese – adult, guided tour included, bought at the door€10 (about $11.46)
• the same five – reduced (ages 7–16, school groups, students of archaeology and related subjects under 25, clergy with proof)€7 (about $8.02)
• the same five – children under 6, visitors with a disability over 74 per cent and their companionfree
• San Sebastiano and Priscilla – online ticket, including the €2 booking fee€12 (about $13.75), reduced €9 (about $10.31)
• Capuchin Crypt and museum, audio guide included€10 (about $11.46)
• Capuchin Crypt, reduced (ages 7–17, over 65, students)€6.50 (about $7.45)
• Capuchin Crypt, groups of 10 or more€7.50 per person (about $8.60)
• Capuchin Crypt, online booking fee per ticket+€1.50 (about $1.72)
• Capuchin Crypt, guided visit on request (at least a week ahead), on top of admission€90 by bank transfer (about $103.14), €95 by PayPal (about $108.87)
• Vatican Necropolis (the Scavi under St Peter's) – a separate site, booked through the Ufficio Scavi€20 (about $22.92), ages 10–17 €14 (about $16.04)
• Rome public transport – single BIT ticket, 100 minutes€1.50 (about $1.72)
• Rome public transport – Roma 24h / 48h / 72h / 7-day CIS€8.50 / €15 / €22 / €29 (about $9.74 / $17.19 / $25.21 / $33.23)
• Leonardo Express, Fiumicino airport to Roma Termini, non-stop€14 (about $16.04), or €40 for four on the Mini-groups fare
• Ciampino Airlink, airport shuttle bus plus train to Roma Termini€2.70 (about $3.09)
• Bike hire at the park information point, Via Appia Antica 58–60city bike €4/hour, max €16/day (about $18.34); mountain bike €5/hour, max €20; e-bike €8/hour, max €32 (about $36.67)
• Exchange rate behind every dollar figure on this page€1 = $1.146, European Central Bank reference rate for 18 September 2026

As of 09/2026 · source and direct booking: catacombesancallisto.it/en/index.php

When everything is sold out

Rome is not Paris: these sites do not sell out days ahead. What runs short is departures in a particular language. English starts most often and rarely means a long wait; German, French and Spanish go less frequently, so ask when you book. Mornings fill up around Easter, in a Holy Year and whenever pilgrim coaches are in town.

Tickets and guided tours of the Rome catacombs

Admission at the door is €10 (about $11.46) at every one of the five, and the guided tour is already in that price – a reseller is not buying you a better tour, it is buying you a ride. That is where the money earns its keep: bus 118 from the Colosseum is the only simple public link, it runs irregularly and it is packed on Sundays, so a transfer from the centre genuinely solves something. Before you book, check two things in the description. Which catacomb does the offer actually enter? Several do not say, and the rest day decides it. And is the "catacombs tour" in fact the Capuchin Crypt on Via Veneto – a bone chapel in the city centre, a different operator, no guide needed, open every day, and not a catacomb at all.

Booked through GetYourGuide (affiliate link, advertising). Most offers can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours ahead. Prices as of 20 September 2026.

Opening hours and best time

There is no common timetable, and that is on purpose: the weekly rest days are staggered so that something on the Appian Way is always open. REST DAYS: Monday = San Sebastiano and Priscilla closed · Tuesday = Domitilla closed · Wednesday = San Callisto closed · Sunday = Sant'Agnese closed · the Capuchin Crypt is open every day. HOURS: San Callisto and Domitilla 9:00–12:00 and 14:00–17:00 – note the two-hour lunch break; San Sebastiano straight through, 9:15–17:15, last admission 16:45; Priscilla Tue–Sat 9:30–13:00 and 14:00–17:00, Sunday from 11:30, last tours at 12:00 and 16:00; Sant'Agnese Mon–Sat with tours on the hour at 10, 11, 12, 15, 16 and 17; the Capuchin Crypt daily 9:30–13:30 (last admission 12:30) and 14:30–18:30 (last admission 17:30). ANNUAL CLOSURES: San Sebastiano 7–27 December 2026; Priscilla 11 January–1 February 2027 and 16–23 August 2027; Sant'Agnese 10–17 August, 16 November–6 December and 31 December 2026; San Callisto last published 15 January–12 February (a 2025 date, the new one is not yet online); Domitilla last published 24 December–21 January (2024/25). All five close on 25 December, 1 January and Easter Sunday.

When it is quietest

Thursday, Friday or Saturday: all three Appian Way catacombs are open, Priscilla too, and you can simply pick. Start at 9:00 – the coaches arrive from about 10:00, and at noon San Callisto and Domitilla shut for two hours. If your only free slot is the middle of the day, go to San Sebastiano, which runs straight through. On Sunday the Appian Way is closed to private cars and is lovely on foot or by bike, but the buses are full and Sant'Agnese is shut. Summer is the right season to be underground in Rome: it is 13 to 16 °C down there while the street is at 35. Check the annual closures before travelling in December or from mid-January to mid-February.

Who it suits

Getting there

By public transport

APPIAN WAY (San Callisto, San Sebastiano, Domitilla): bus 118 from metro B at Colosseo or Circo Massimo stops directly at "Catacombe di San Callisto" and "Catacombe di San Sebastiano" – the simplest ride from the centre, but it runs irregularly. Bus 218 from metro A at San Giovanni goes to Fosse Ardeatine, about 300 m from San Sebastiano and a short walk from San Callisto's south entrance and from Domitilla. Bus 660 from metro A at Arco di Travertino reaches San Sebastiano. For Domitilla alone: bus 714 from Termini, 160 from Piazza San Silvestro or 30 from Largo Argentina to Piazza dei Navigatori, then about ten minutes on foot along Via delle Sette Chiese. PRISCILLA: metro B1 to Sant'Agnese/Annibaliano and roughly 15 minutes' walk, or metro B to Bologna and bus 310. SANT'AGNESE is by the same metro station. CAPUCHIN CRYPT: metro A to Barberini, then a few minutes up Via Veneto. FARES: a single BIT ticket is €1.50 for 100 minutes; 24 hours €8.50, 48 hours €15, 72 hours €22, seven days €29. The old Archeobus tourist shuttle is still named as the way out here by many English pages and even by the city tourism site, but no current timetable or fare could be verified in September 2026 – treat bus 118 as the real answer and see "unsicher".

By car

San Callisto has an unattended car park at the fork of Via Appia Antica and Via Ardeatina, by the Quo Vadis church. On Sundays and public holidays Via Appia Antica is closed to private cars, which is exactly what makes it pleasant on foot or by bike. A hire car is otherwise a liability in Rome: the historic centre is a restricted traffic zone and the Appian Way is narrow, cobbled and short of parking.

From the nearest city

FROM FIUMICINO (FCO), about 30 km west: the Leonardo Express runs non-stop to Roma Termini in 32 minutes, every 15 minutes, €14 (about $16.04), or €40 for four together. From Termini take metro B one stop to Colosseo for bus 118, or bus 714 for Domitilla. FROM CIAMPINO (CIA), about 15 km south-east: the Ciampino Airlink combines a 10-minute shuttle from the terminal with the train to Termini for €2.70 (about $3.09); private coaches to Termini cost about €6. Ciampino is the closer airport to the Appian Way, but there is no useful direct link – go via the centre. FROM THE CENTRE: it is about 4 km from the Colosseum to the Appian Way catacombs on bus 118. The three Appian sites sit close enough to walk between – San Callisto to San Sebastiano is roughly 10 to 15 minutes across the grounds. Priscilla is in the north of the city and does not combine sensibly with the Appian Way in the same half-day; pair it with Sant'Agnese instead. BY BIKE OR ON FOOT: the park information point at Via Appia Antica 58–60 rents city bikes from €4 an hour up to €16 a day and e-bikes from €8 an hour up to €32, helmet, lock and park map included, open daily except 25 December and 1 January, and it advises booking a day ahead from March to October. Riding the Appian Way and stopping at the catacombs is the best version of this trip, and on a car-free Sunday it is the obvious one. BY TRAIN: Roma Termini has direct high-speed services from Florence, Milan, Naples and Venice, and Termini is on both metro lines.

Tips for your visit

1. Fix the day of the week before you fix the catacomb: Mon = San Sebastiano and Priscilla closed, Tue = Domitilla closed, Wed = San Callisto closed, Sun = Sant'Agnese closed. Thursday to Saturday everything is open.
2. The 12:00–14:00 lunch closure at San Callisto and Domitilla catches people out constantly. Arrive at 11:30 and you risk two dead hours – or walk to San Sebastiano, which runs straight through from 9:15 to 17:15.
3. English departures are frequent and usually the next one out, so you rarely need to book for language alone. If you want German, French or Spanish, choose the language in Priscilla's or San Sebastiano's booking form, or write "Tedesco", "Francese" or "Spagnolo" on Domitilla's request form.
4. At San Sebastiano, reserving free of charge and paying €10 at the door saves the €2 online fee – but be there at least 15 minutes before the start or the place goes to someone else.
5. Bus 118 from Colosseo or Circo Massimo is the simple way out, but it runs irregularly and is packed on Sundays. Keep the 218 from Fosse Ardeatine in mind for the way back; it ends at San Giovanni on metro A.
6. Two catacombs in one morning works: 9:00 at San Callisto, then walk south across the grounds to San Sebastiano. Three in a row start to blur into one another.
7. Travel light. San Callisto bans luggage and prams in the galleries and there are no lockers, and photography is forbidden underground, so there is nothing to carry a camera for.
8. Resellers listing the catacombs from $16 upward are selling the same house tour that costs €10 at the door. Paying more is worth it only if transfer or an extra guide is genuinely included – and check which catacomb the listing actually enters, because several do not say.
9. If the Appian Way is closed on the day you have free, the Capuchin Crypt on Via Veneto is open every day, needs no guide and takes about an hour including the museum. It is a different kind of place, not a substitute – but it is the one bone site in Rome where you actually see bones.

What the internet gets wrong

History in brief

• Roman law forbade burial inside the city walls, so the cemeteries grew up along the roads out of town – the Via Appia, the Via Salaria, the Via Nomentana.
• From the 2nd century, Christian and Jewish communities cut underground cemeteries into the soft tuff. They dug down because ground was expensive and space was short, not to hide. The galleries stayed in use and kept growing into the 5th century.
• Over 60 catacombs are known under Rome today; roughly 170 km of galleries with an estimated 750,000 graves have been excavated.
• San Callisto became the official community cemetery of the church of Rome in the 3rd century. Nine popes and probably eight 3rd-century dignitaries lie in the Crypt of the Popes, which Giovanni Battista de Rossi nicknamed "the little Vatican". The complex reaches about 20 km on up to five levels.
• The word "catacomb" comes from a place name: ad catacumbas, "by the hollows", the ancient name of the ground where the basilica of San Sebastiano now stands. Only later was it applied to underground cemeteries generally.
• After the raids of the early Middle Ages the relics were moved into the city churches and the catacombs were largely forgotten.
• Antonio Bosio (1575–1629) began exploring them systematically. In the 19th century Giovanni Battista de Rossi founded the scientific study of Christian archaeology and rediscovered the Crypt of the Popes among much else. The Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology was set up in 1852 and still administers the catacombs.
• The idea that Christians hid in the catacombs from persecution is a 19th-century construction, not an ancient fact. About 80 per cent of the Christian excavation dates from after the persecutions ended, and the sites were widely known – they were registered cemeteries, protected by Roman burial law, not secret refuges.
• The Capuchin Crypt has nothing to do with any of this. It grew up in the early modern period under the Capuchin church on Via Veneto, and who arranged the bones is not documented – the museum itself speaks of legends.

Frequent questions

Sources