The catacombs of Sant'Antioco

In the collective imagination, the first centuries of Christianity are often connected with a specific place: the catacombs. It has long been believed that these underground spaces were chosen by the first Christians to be able to secretly hold the meetings during which religious services took place, thus hoping to escape the dangers of Roman persecution.

In reality, scientific research has shown that things were different. The term “catacomb” of Greek origin - composed of the terms “katà”: “down”, “below”, and “kùmbes”: “cavity”, “depth”, or “kýmbos”: “recess” - in fact, designates hypogeic burial areas more or less large depending on the number of burials contained in them where the only religious services that should have taken place there were the funeral rites connected to the deposition of the dead.

In Sardinia, the catacombs of Sant'Antioco are known, whose main nucleus is located under the cathedral dedicated to the saint.

A peculiar feature of the Sulcitan catacombs is their origin. In fact, they were born starting from the third century A.D. from the transformation of a part of the Punic hypogeic necropolises, suitably adapted to the new needs related to the different Christian funeral rituals. It also houses the sarcophagus in which, according to tradition, the saint's body was placed in 127.

A visit to the catacombs allows you to grasp, through the planimetric development, their history, closely connected with the progressive growth of the Sulcitan Christian community. Of considerable interest is the perception of the irregular development of the catacombs, the result of expansions generated by the need to adapt the funerary area to the increasingly numerous deposits of deceased Christians.

The type of burials varies from niches dug into the walls, to arcosols (tombs always dug into the walls surmounted, however, by an arch, sometimes decorated with Christian paintings), paving pits and castle boxes.

In many cases, the Punic hypogeic structures, from which Christian burials originated, still appear perceptible.

Over the centuries, there have also been changes and damages generated by attempts to find phantom and imaginative “treasures”.

Update

22/9/2023 - 10:52