Jerusalem is a desired burying spot , but the ancient city is break away out of space to bury the dead . In 2015 , the Jerusalem Jewish Community Burial Societyteamed upwith a construction group to hold beneath a slew in the metropolis ’s largest cemetery , Har Hamenuchot , and create a massive underground cemetery that will house 22,000 crypt . The plan is to create burial spaces arranged floor - to - ceiling in a web of intersectant burrow — a little like the ones that first deck the Middle East 1000 of years ago . The first section of the modernized catacomb is set to open inOctober 2019 .
Here are seven of the most beautiful and historically absorbing catacombs from elsewhere in the world .
1. Rome Catacombs
Catacombs uprise in the Middle East about 6000 years ago and diffuse to Rome with Jewish migration . other Christians modeled their interment practices on Jewish customs , although they were draw by Roman formula to bury outside the city limits . Since land was expensive , they proceed underground , digging an estimated 375 mile of tunnels through Rome ’s soft volcanic tuff , and building web of rooms lined with rectangular niches calledloculi . Later , more complex tomb includedcubical(small suite that assist as a family tomb ) andarcosolia(large niches with an arch over the opening , also used for families ) . Both were often decorated with religious frescos , gold medallions , statues , and other art . The beaut was n’t just for the deadened but for the living , who congregated there to divvy up funeral repast and strike out destruction anniversaries . ( The estimate that persecuted Christians in secret worship there , however , is aRomantic - geological era legend . )
By the early fifth one C , barbarians had invade Rome and start strip the grave , so the remains of interred saints and martyrs were move to more secure locations in churches around the city . The catacomb were forgotten for C , until miner circumstantially rediscovered one under the Via Salaria in 1578 . That rig off a Benjamin Rush for relics ( often ofdubious provenance ) . Today , Rome ’s 40 - peculiar catacomb have been stripped of bodies , but the ancient frescoes and winding passageway make them well worth a visit .
2. Paris Catacombs
They were n’t the first , but theParis catacombsmight be the most famous in the humankind , and little can compete with them for sheer macabre glamour . Created by the Romans as limestone pit to construct the urban center above , their current enjoyment dates from the late eighteenth century , when overcrowded cemeteries around the urban center sparkle public health concerns . ( One of the worst offenders was Saints - Innocents , in employment for almost a millennium and bubble over with corpses , which was n’t so majuscule consider its propinquity to the pop Les Halles market ) . start in the late 18th century , officials conduct bang of the site by relocate the bones — from an estimated six to seven million the great unwashed — to the former quarries , which were specially blessed and consecrated for that purpose .
The catacomb were opened as a public curiosity in the nineteenth hundred , and today visitors can see the bone piled intoartful organisation . ( One innovation is shaped like a keg , another like a heart . ) Other attraction let in an underground leap , a charnel lamp , sculpture created by a quarryman , andspecial exhibits . Only part of the roughly 200 metrical unit of tunnel is open to the public , although that has n’t stopped intrepid urban explorers , artists , and thieves from journey to the off - limits division . In 2004 , Parisian law find asecret cinemaset up inside one area , terminated with a bar .
3. Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa
A series of tomb tunneled into the fundamental principle beneath Alexandria starting in the 2d century , the catacomb of Kom el Shoqafa ( " Mound of Shards " ) were forgotten until 1900 , when a donkey fall into an access barb . Today the three degree of catacomb are open for visits , and include several jumbo stone coffins as well as carvings , statue , and other archaeological point melding Roman , Greek , and Egyptian styles . On the second level is theHall of Caracalla , said to contain the remains of vernal Christian hands ( and at least one horse ) massacred by Caracalla in AD 215 .
4. Palermo Capuchin Catacombs
In the 16th century , the Capuchin church in Palermo , Sicily , began outgrowing its cemetery and the monks got the approximation ofembalmingtheir dead brethren and lay them on show in the catacomb rather . At first only friars got this particular treatment , but the practice caught on and local notables began asking for the accolade in their wills . around 12,000 people have since been embalmed and put for display according to demographic — the family include Men , Women , Virgins , Children , Priests , Monks , and Professionals . Burials did n’t halt until the 1920s , and one of the most famous inhabitants is also among the last — the beautifulRosalie Lombardo .
5. Rabat Catacombs, Malta
Beneath the modern city of Rabat , Malta ( once theancient Roman townof Melite ) lies an extensive system of rock - hewn underground grave dating from the quaternary to the ninth century AD . Unlike most other catacombs throughout the Mediterranean — and indeed the world — the tunnels were used to bury Jews , Christians , and pagans , without detectable segmentation among the mathematical group .
feature film include large tables used for ceremonial meals remember the dead and canopied burying chambers , some of which have been code with illustrations and substance ( archeologists are still make to interpret the internet site ) . Major catacomb complexes in Rabat admit those of St. Paul , St. Agatha and Tad - Dejr .
6. St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna
The mother church building of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna , St. Stephen ’s Cathedral is one of the most important buildings in the metropolis , known for its gorgeous multi - colored roofing tile roof ( and for being the site of Vivaldi ’s funeral ) . But fewer tourists visit the crypt , where the remains of more than11,000 peoplelie .
Although most of the current cathedral dates to the fourteenth century , the crypt originated after an outbreak of the bubonic plague in the 1730s , when burial site around Vienna were emptied in an effort to stem the tide of the disease . Many of the skeletons were piled into neat rows , skulls on top , although visitors to some areas will also see disorganized piles of bones . In one section , the ducal crypt , the organ of princes , queens , and emperors are salt away — include Hapsburg Queen Maria Teresa ’s stomach .
7. Brno Ossuary
Monika Durickova , Flickr//CC BY 2.0
A routine archeological dig as part of a construction project in 2001 led to an unexpected discovery in Brno , the Czech Republic — a long - forgotten hugger-mugger charnel house drum with skeletal frame . An estimated50,000 setsof remains had been stuff beneath St. Jacob ’s Square during the 17th and eighteenth centuries , originally heap in clean rows but later on jumbled by water and mud . The site opened for public viewing in June 2012 , and today it ’s the secondly - turgid ( known ) ossuary in Europe , after the Paris catacomb .
This list first ran in 2015 and was republish in 2019 .
