Catacombs of Saint Januarius (Catacombe di San Gennaro)

Dimly lighted walkway in the catacombs

Okay... for those who love macabre tales of ghosts,zombies and vampires... this place seems like the perfect haunt for these creatures... however, unfortunately I didnt see any here... not even the skeletal remains. The Catacombs of San Gennaro is one of the many must see places in Naples. The skeletal remains have sinced moved to the Fontanelle Cemetary due to the cult practices of old superstitious napoletans which believed the skulls to hold a link with its past inhabitants that are in purgatory and used to pray to them to ask for help.

The catacombs of San Gennaro (or known as the catacombs of Saint Januarius) is one of the oldest underground necropolis that is located under the hills of capodimonte in Naples... In the beginning, this used to be the burial site of St Agrippino who is the first christian bishop in italy and was said to have performed many miracles from his tomb.

Later, Saint Januarius (the patron saint of naples) body was moved and buried here in the very heart of this catacombs by  Bishop John I and this led the catacombs to become one of the holy pilgrimage sites of naples. This cult led to the further expansion of the catacombs as many wanted to be buried near saint januarius. Even the famous dukes of naples were buried here together with the many bishops of the catholic church. (The remains of san gennaro was ransacked by the lombard prince and moved to benevento which is his seat of power. The reason for him doing this is because the relic of san gennaro was apparently very sacred to the people of naples in the past and whoever who had the relic had the power). Ever since the remains of saint Januarius was ransacked, the catacombs slowly started to fall into ruins as people flocked to Benevento instead.
 

Tombs on the left and right

We started our journey in a company of 11 people, mainly with my husband's work colleagues.. we started our tour at roughly 11.30 am in the morning (night is definitely not a good time to go.. lol.. its also closed). The catacombs has large passageways with wide archs and tombs on its walls and floor. The rich had tombs painted with symbols of religion/faith and images of its past inhabitants on it, while the middle class had tombs on its walls. The poor instead had tombs on the ground.

Base level: Old pagan symbols (Circle and squares)

Old pagan tomb

 This catacombs dates back to as early as the 2nd/3rd century and used to be a greek pagan burial site before its transformation to a christian burial site. In fact there are 2 distinct levels in this catacombs. The base level consists of older pagan burial tombs while the top level is mostly newer christian burial tombs. The tombs on both level are very different.





The old pagan tombs had symbols of nature/geometric shapes painted on it... if you look above you can see a round and square shapes painted on the entrance arch of the lower grounds of the catacombs. Also the photo on the left shows a tomb with a peacock painted on it. The reason for the peacock being painted is because its feathers last forever and it is a symbol of everlasting life in the old days. This tomb is roughly around 3rd/4th century old abd its skeletal remains have since been removed to the fontanelle cemetary.

3 women representing Faith,Hope and Love

On the upper floor of the catacombs, you will see the more recent christian tombs...The population of naples in the past were illiterate and therefore with the illustrive images they tried to preach christianity to the people. According to our guide Enzo, apparently the image on the left shows 3 women pouring water and can be referred to an old ancient christian litereature work entitled "The Shepherd of Hermes" which represents faith, hope and love.


  

An image of San Gennaro with a woman and child beside him

You can notice the difference between the pagan tombs and the christian tombs as it has the special signs of the christus with alpha and omega inscripted on them (meaning the beginning and the end). Our guide also told us that christians in the past use to have the sign of the fish to differentiate between christian and non christian burial tombs instead of the cross that is used nowdays). On the left you can see the image of san gennarius with the symbold of  christus (top of his head), alpha (left) and omega (right) inscripted. The woman and child beside the image of san gennaro are the ones that were buried in this tomb.

The practice of burying the dead from a same family in the same tomb is also practised. For example, the image on the right shows a tomb of a wealthy family consisting of 3 people being buried one after the other by layering one on top of the other. The artist depicted the father was buried first, followed by the child and later the mother.

An Image of Christ painted on the ceiling

During World War II, the catacombs was adapted and used by the people of Naples as a bomb shelter. This further caused some damage to the catacombs. However now with some help from public and private funding, major restoration has been performed to enable the catacombs to become a new tourist attraction site.

I would definitely recommend this place to visitors or travellers as it is defintely a cultural treasure and heritage that forms the rich and colorful traditions of the naples we know today.  If you do stop by at naples, please dont miss this chance of a lifetime and visit this place! For more information, you can check out on trip advisor: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187785-d243315-Reviews-Catacombe_di_San_Gennaro_St_Januarius-Naples_Province_of_Naples_Campania.html

And remember.. Adventure is DOWN there ;-)