Vatican Grottoes

The first thing you notice is the air. It is cooler down here, and still, as if the noise of the great church above has been left on the stairs behind you. The ceiling hangs low. Marble glows softly under quiet lamps. Footsteps sound close and careful, and voices drop to a murmur without anyone asking. You are standing beneath Saint Peter's Basilica, in a layer of Rome that most visitors walk straight over.

These are the Vatican Grottoes. They are not caves, despite the name. They are a long, vaulted space between two churches. Above you is the basilica built during the Renaissance and finished in the seventeenth century. Below you, and around you, are the traces of an older basilica. The Emperor Constantine raised that first church in the fourth century, on the hill where Christian tradition placed the grave of Saint Peter.

Here is the first surprise. When the new basilica was built, the builders did not dig the old one away. They raised the new floor well above the old one. The gap between the two levels became this space. So, in a very real sense, you are walking at roughly the height of the old church. The floor of Constantine's Rome is close beneath your feet.

Think about what that means for a moment. For more than a thousand years, pilgrims crossed this level to pray near the apostle's tomb. Emperors, kings and ordinary travellers came here. When the old basilica was replaced, many of its tombs, altars and carved fragments were moved down into this lower space. That is why the grottoes feel like a quiet archive in stone. Pieces of the old church rest here, saved rather than thrown away.

As you walk, you will pass the tombs of popes. Some lie in simple sarcophagi of pale stone. Others rest beneath plain slabs carved with a name and a cross. The contrast with the church above is striking. Upstairs, papal monuments are vast works in bronze and coloured marble. Down here, the style is much simpler. Many of these tombs are modest, almost severe. They seem made for prayer, not for display.

One of the most visited places here belongs to a recent story. When Pope John Paul II died in 2005, he was buried in the grottoes. In the days that followed, the line of mourners stretched far out across Saint Peter's Square. Later, after his beatification in 2011, his body was moved upstairs into the basilica itself. His first resting place did not stay empty for long, as you will hear.

In 2023, Pope Benedict XVI was buried in that same place. Benedict was the German theologian who stepped down from the papacy in 2013. He was the first pope to resign in nearly six centuries. Many people pause at his tomb, and you may see fresh flowers or a small candle there. Nearby, look for the tombs of other modern popes, including Paul VI and John Paul I. John Paul I served for only about a month in 1978.

Not everyone buried here was a pope. Here is the second surprise. Queen Christina of Sweden lies in these grottoes. She was a Protestant monarch who gave up her throne in the seventeenth century and converted to Catholicism. She moved to Rome and became a famous patron of art, music and learning. She is one of very few women buried in Saint Peter's. Her more elaborate monument stands up in the basilica, but her body rests down here.

Another name to watch for is Adrian IV. He was born in England as Nicholas Breakspear, and he reigned in the twelfth century. He remains the only English pope in the history of the Church. His sarcophagus is a plain, heavy block of ancient stone. It is easy to walk past without a second look. For many British visitors, however, it is a small and unexpected link between their own island and this hill in Rome.

Now consider what lies even deeper. Beneath the grottoes is an ancient Roman burial ground, a city of the dead from the early centuries after Christ. Archaeologists excavated it in the 1940s, under Pope Pius XII, who is himself buried in these grottoes. The digging uncovered streets of tombs, painted walls and a small shrine. The Church identifies this area as the burial place of Saint Peter. That lower level is separate, and it can only be seen on a guided tour booked in advance.

Even from here, you can feel the pull of that point below. The whole layout of the basilica turns around it. Directly above Peter's traditional grave stands the high altar of the church. Above the altar rises Bernini's bronze canopy, and above that sits Michelangelo's dome. Stand still for a moment and picture that line running straight up through the stone. The tallest dome in Rome and this low, quiet passage share a single centre.

As you move through, notice the details of the old basilica that were saved. Look for fragments of carved marble, and for mosaics and reliefs set into the walls. Notice the different colours of the stone, from creamy white to faded grey and warm rust. Some of the carving is crisp, and some is worn almost smooth by centuries of hands and candle smoke. These are the remains of a building that once stood where the great church stands now.

The route through the grottoes is short, and it usually moves in one direction. Guards may remind you to keep moving, or to stay silent near the tombs. This is still a place of worship and of mourning, not only a museum. You may see someone kneeling, a priest in quiet prayer, or a family standing together at one particular stone. It is worth slowing down, even for a few seconds, to share that stillness.

When you climb back up into the light, the basilica will feel enormous. The noise will return, along with the gold, the crowds and the height of the dome. Carry a little of the grottoes with you as you go. Remember that beneath every step in this church lie older floors, older names and much older prayers. The great building above rests, quite literally, on the quiet rooms you have just walked through.