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For opening times and visit details please consult the official website
www.comitatocatacombedigenerosa.it/dblog
Museums and places of culture are required to respect the indications contained in the COVID containment measures.
Visits to the Catacombs of Generosa are organised thanks to the collaboration between the Comitato Catacombe di Generosa and the Comitato Storico-Archeologico del Municipio XI Arvalia-Portuense.
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Description
The catacomb was discovered by chance in 1868 by G.B. De Rossi when many epigraphs were found in this area, which was a vineyard belonging to the Ceccarelli brothers: it is not large, its galleries are narrow, rather irregular: probably the geomorphological nature of the terrain has conditioned its course. The burials are loculus, quite modest, and with few exceptions we can speak of a modest rural cemetery. The martyrs Simplicio, Faustino and Beatrice were buried in the catacomb, and it cannot be ruled out that their presence contributed significantly to the intensive use of the entire cemetery.
According to tradition, during the persecutions ordered by Emperor Diocletian (284-305), the two brothers Simplicio and Faustino were killed after being tortured. Their bodies were thrown into the Tiber and carried by the current to the banks of the Magliana. They were washed ashore by their sister Beatrice who, with the help of the presbyters Crispus and John, arranged for their burial in a nearby quarry of pozzolana, owned by a Roman matron named Generosa.
Later Beatrice was also killed and buried next to her brothers.