Catacombs of Rome Rediscovered

1578

A hillside collapse on the Via Salaria revealed a network of underground Christian burial galleries, and the antiquarian Antonio Bosio began exploring them with candle and notebook. Rome's vast early Christian underworld, forgotten for a millennium, emerged into Counter-Reformation daylight just as the Church needed martyrs. Bosio's exploration provided the Counter-Reformation with physical evidence of early Christian martyrdom at a time when Protestants challenged apostolic claims.