San Sebastiano fuori le mura

San Sebastiano fuori le mura tickets: which one to buy

The basilica is free to enter. The catacombs beneath it are visited only on a guided tour, which runs continuously in several languages and charges a modest ticket; the tour lasts about thirty-five minutes and is the reason to come. There is no combined ticket with the other Appian catacombs, San Callisto and Domitilla, though a joint archaeological card covers several sites on the Appia.

The basilica is on the Via Appia Antica, three kilometres beyond the walls, reached by bus 118 from Circo Massimo or by bicycle; the Appia is closed to traffic on Sundays, which is when Romans walk and cycle it. Nothing needs booking except for groups. The tour goes underground on uneven steps and is not suitable for anyone with limited mobility. A cafe and a bookshop stand beside the entrance, and the bus stop for the return to the city is directly outside.

Visiting San Sebastiano fuori le mura: what to see

The catacombs here gave the word to the language: the Greek phrase for the hollow near the quarry, kata kymbas, became catacumbas and then the general term for all such cemeteries. Christians buried their dead in these galleries from the second century, and for a period in the third the relics of Peter and Paul appear to have been hidden here, which the graffiti scratched by pilgrims on the walls of a room called the triclia record in their hundreds.

Constantine built a basilica above in the fourth century; it was rebuilt in the 1600s by Flaminio Ponzio and Giovanni Vasanzio for Cardinal Scipione Borghese. Inside are a bust of Christ attributed to Bernini, his last work, and a chapel holding the arrow-pierced statue of St Sebastian carved by Antonio Giorgetti to Bernini's design. A footprint stone said to carry the mark of Christ's feet from the Quo Vadis legend is kept in the basilica, brought here from the small church up the road.

San Sebastiano fuori le mura opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily except Sundays, when the basilica is open but the catacombs are closed; hours run from mid-morning to late afternoon with a break at midday, and the site shuts for part of December. Tours leave as soon as a group forms, so waits are short outside the summer peak. The catacombs are cool and humid at any season, about fifteen degrees, which is a relief in August.

The Appia Antica is best on a Sunday, closed to cars and lined with tombs and pines. Dress modestly and bring something warm for underground. Photography is forbidden in the catacombs. Allow ninety minutes with the tour, half a day for the Appia as a whole. The Appia Antica park office rents bicycles a few hundred metres away and the ancient road can be cycled for several kilometres beyond the basilica.