Catacombs of Priscilla: Hours, Booking and the Capuchin Crypt Tours That Go There

Opening hours

The opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday 09:30-13:00 and 14:00-17:00, and Sunday 11:30-13:00 and 14:00-17:00. The site closes on Mondays, on 1 November, 8 December, 24-26 December, 1 and 6 January, from 11 January to 1 February, and on Easter Sunday.

Booking is required for all visits, including individuals. The online booking flow lets you pick a language, group type, date and time, and individual reservations and group bookings are handled separately. The entry fee appears in the booking flow, so check it there before you fix your budget.

What the visit is like

A visit covers a set route on two levels of tunnels, more than 13 km of them in total, cut into tufa under the Via Salaria. The guide leads you past the three notable areas: the Greek Chapel, the cryptoporticus and the tombs.

The entrance sits inside the cloister of the monastery of the Benedictines of Priscilla, so you walk in through a working religious complex rather than a stand-alone museum gate.

If you are planning the same day around the Capuchin Crypt, note that the crypt near Piazza Barberini is a different site with its own ticket and hours. Its full comparison is on the capuchin crypt tours homepage.

The two combined options

After Hours Crypts & Catacombs Express Guided Tour by City Wonders costs $55 per person, runs 2.5 hours, holds a 4.7 rating from 231 reviews and offers free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead. It starts at Piazza Barberini with the crypt and an audio guide, then drives to Priscilla.

Rome Catacombs After-Hours Tour with Capuchin Crypt & Transport by The Tour Guy costs $124.45 per person, runs 3 hours, holds a 4.6 rating from 107 reviews and offers the same cancellation window. It visits Priscilla first, then the crypt at closing time. When Priscilla is closed it switches to San Sebastiano, so check your date against the closures.

Visiting the two sites separately

You can also book them on your own. For the crypt alone, Capuchin Crypts Guided Tour with Audio Guide Option costs $22 per person and Capuchin Crypts Entry Ticket with Audio Guide costs $10.45 per person, both with free cancellation 24 hours ahead.

Splitting the day works well because Priscilla closes at 17:00 while the crypt's last entry is 17:30, so do the catacombs in the morning and the crypt in the afternoon. Book the Priscilla slot first, since booking is required there for all visitors.

A cemetery in the tufa

The galleries hold about 40 thousand burials across 13 kilometers of tunnels on two levels. Excavation ran between the end of the 2nd century and the 5th century.

The diggers partly reused older structures. A pozzolan quarry called the Arenarium and a hypogeum with tombs of the Acilii Glabrioni family were absorbed into the Christian cemetery. Burials continued from the late 2nd century through the 4th century.

The scale earned the site its nickname, Regina Catacumbarum, the queen of the catacombs.

From cemetery to pilgrimage site

A basilica was later built over the tomb of San Silvestro, who was elected Pope in 314. That basilica now lies in the basement of the monastery above the catacombs, and Holy Mass can be celebrated there for pilgrim groups on reservation.

This history is the frame the guide uses on your visit: you are walking a cemetery of the early Roman church, not a decorative cave.

The named dead

Guidebooks state seven early popes and more than three hundred martyrs were buried in the tunnels. The named figures include Pope Sylvester and the martyrs Felice and Filippo.

The Depositio Martyrum, an early record of Roman martyrs, lists more names tied to the site: popes Marcellinus and Marcellus, the martyrs Felix and Philip, Pudenziana and Praxedes, Maurus and Simetrius, 360 anonymous martyrs and Pope Sylvester.

The ancient accounts and the modern signage do not always match on every name, so treat the guide's commentary as the version to follow on site.

The unnamed dead

Most of the roughly 40 thousand burials are ordinary Christians of the early Roman community. Their loculi, the simple slot graves cut into the walls, line the galleries you walk through.

One grave stands out for its decoration rather than its occupant: the Cubiculum of the Velata holds three fresco portraits of a single unnamed woman, and she is known only by the veil in the paintings.

The Cubiculum of the Velata

The Velata's Cubicle holds frescoes dated to the second half of the 3rd century. The three portraits follow the life of a single unnamed woman, shown veiled, which gives the room its name.

The Greek Chapel and the cryptoporticus

The Greek Chapel opens onto the cryptoporticus. Its frescoes date to the time of emperor Gallienus, 253 to 268, and include the scene known as Fractio panis, the breaking of bread.

The cryptoporticus is an older structure absorbed into the catacomb, one of the reused elements alongside the Arenarium quarry.

The oldest image of the Virgin

A fresco dated 230 to 240 shows the Virgin and Child with the prophet Balaam. It is considered the oldest depiction of the Virgin, and the catacomb may hold the oldest known Marian paintings overall, from the early 3rd century.

The catacomb publishes no photography rule, so ask your guide before raising a camera or phone.

Finding the entrance

You enter through the cloister of the monastery of the Benedictines of Priscilla on the Via Salaria. The address is Via Salaria 430. The tunnels partly run under the neighbouring park of Villa Ada Savoia.

Give yourself a few extra minutes to find the gate on a first visit. The street is busy and the monastery wall hides the complex from the road.

Getting there on a combined day

Priscilla publishes no metro or bus directions, so plan the public transport leg in a routing app before you leave.

The Capuchin Crypt sits across the centre near Piazza Barberini, which is why the after-hours tours include transport. If you visit independently, build in travel time between the two sites and book the Priscilla slot first, since booking is required there and the site closes at 17:00.

Dress and conduct

The entrance sits inside a working Benedictine monastery, and Mass can be celebrated in the basement basilica for pilgrim groups, so treat the complex as a church space. Both after-hours tours that visit Priscilla require knees and shoulders covered for men and women.

The catacomb publishes no dress code, photography rule or bag rule of its own. Ask at the entrance and follow the guide's instructions once underground.

Comfort underground

The tunnels are cool underground, so bring a layer even on a hot Rome day, as The Tour Guy advises for its evening visit. Wear shoes with grip, since the route involves stairs and old floors.

The visit runs on a set route with a guide, so there is no lingering or doubling back. Eat and use the facilities before your slot.

The timeline

Excavation began in the late 2nd century and continued into the 5th century. The earliest frescoes in the decorated rooms support that span: the Virgin and Child image is dated 230 to 240, and the Velata frescoes belong to the second half of the 3rd century.

The oldest structure on the route predates the Christian cemetery. The hypogeum with tombs of the Acilii Glabrioni and the Arenarium pozzolan quarry were already in the ground when the burial galleries spread around them.

The basilica over the tomb of San Silvestro, Pope from 314, marks the later phase, when the cemetery became a place of pilgrimage.

Why the dates matter on your visit

The guide uses this timeline to explain what you see, from the reused quarry to the painted rooms of the 3rd century and the later cult of Pope Sylvester.

If art history is your reason for coming, say so at booking. The booking flow lets you pick your visit language and group type.

Why Priscilla comes first for many visitors

Priscilla combines three things in one site: the Velata's Cubicle frescoes from the second half of the 3rd century, the Greek Chapel with the Fractio panis scene from the reign of Gallienus, and the Virgin and Child fresco dated 230 to 240.

Add the papal burials, seven popes and more than three hundred martyrs by guidebook counts, and the site justifies its nickname Regina Catacumbarum.

Priscilla publishes no ticket price outside its booking flow, so compare entry fees there before deciding.

Pairing it with the Capuchin Crypt

If your Rome trip is built around underground and bone sites, Priscilla and the Capuchin Crypt make a natural pair. The crypt, decorated by Capuchin friars in the 18th and 19th centuries, holds the remains of about 3,700 people, mostly Capuchin friars.

The two sites differ in character. The catacombs are an early Christian cemetery with painted rooms. The crypt is a baroque bone chapel in the city centre. An after-hours tour, from $55 per person, links both in one 2.5 to 3 hour outing with transport.