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San Giovanni Church

The Church of San Giovanni alle Catacombe is a beautiful open-air church. In its bowels it houses the painted crypt of S. Marciano and the catacombs of San Giovanni.

Near the Archaeological Park of Neapolis, there are the remains of the beautiful Church of San Giovanni Evangelista, known as the basilica of San Giovanni alle Catacombe.

It is a suggestive open-air church, built on the crypt where, according to tradition, St. Marciano, the first bishop of Siracusa (VI century), was buried.
The Byzantine church was the first cathedral in the city, but it underwent devastation, restoration and new destruction over the centuries. Lastly, the earthquake of 1693 that caused the roof never raised again to collapse.

But it is in the bowels that the basilica preserves its most precious jewels: the suggestive painted crypt of S. Marciano and the catacombs of San Giovanni, the most "recent" among the underground catacombs of Siracusa, Vigna Cassia and Santa Lucia.

The Catacombs of San Giovanni were built in the fourth century, following the route of a former Greek aqueduct (with its tanks), and enlarged until the fifth century.

On the walls, particularly along the corridor leading to the “Round Marina”, it is possible to admire a graffito depicting a monogram and two boats stylized as fishes, evident Christian symbols.

The walls of the galleries and rotundas were used to create niches to house single deceased people or real family tombs. In particular, along the corridor leading to the Marina roundabout, you will be able to contemplate a graffiti depicting a monogram and two stylized fish boats, clear Christian symbols.

Over the centuries, the catacombs were plundered and desecrated by the various invaders of Siracusa and were completely abandoned at the end of the sixth century.
Unknown until the sixteenth century, it was only at the end of the last century that the archaeological excavations conducted by Paolo Orsi began.

In 1872, it was he who found in the rotunda of Adelphia a marble sarcophagus with 62 biblical characters from the Old and New Testament and, in the center, a shell with two busts; today you can admire the sarcophagus at the “Paolo Orsi” Regional Museum.

INFO

Via S. Giovanni alle Catacombe, 1

96100 Siracusa SR