Catacombs of San Callisto

Dug into soft tufa along the Appian Way from the second century, the Callixtus catacombs include the Crypt of the Popes and the tomb of St Cecilia. The graffiti and frescoes here — the fish, the anchor, the Good Shepherd, the orant figure — are the earliest Christian visual language we have. They were burial places, not hiding places; the persecution-refuge story is largely nineteenth-century romance.