Catacombe di Santa Lucia

Saint Lucia Square is one of the most important places in Syracusa, because the Patron Saint was martyred in the same city that was her birthplace, in 304 AD, becoming for all an example of virtue and courage. The area surrounding the monument of Saint Lucia Extra Moenia had acquired a symbolic value for the followers of the Christian religion even before the third century AD, and this is evidenced by the presence of few catacombs where they celebrated their rites and buried their dead. According to the hagiographic tradition, moreover, the body of the martyr of Syracuse was buried just into a arcosolium of this group of catacombs, that from a place dedicated to the religious celebrations in the city. The Catacomb, below the current Square, is characterized by a rather complex morphology: it consists of a community cemetery and some underground private law attributable to centuries III, IV and V, and it houses archaeological evidence dating back to the Byzantine and Norman age. The archeology attests the continuity of the cult in the underground cemetery and in the upper Basilica.