On the southern fringes of Rome, where the city’s ancient suburbium once blurred into farmland, lies the necropolis of Vallerano. Excavated in the early 1990s, this burial ground was discovered near a villa site, its graves flanking a road that once carried the living and the dead between the city and its hinterland. Such roadside cemeteries were common in Roman suburbia, where tombs lined the approach roads to announce family lineage and wealth to passing travellers. Vallerano’s tombs, carved into the tufa bedrock, speak to a practical and poignant Roman custom: placing the dead close to the living, along the arteries of daily life. The site offers a quiet, unassuming glimpse into the funerary landscape of Rome’s periphery, a place where the city’s expansion met the permanence of memory.
Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.
Atika pings you when you walk or drive past heritage like this. Works offline, no account needed to explore.
Short, true stories of overlooked heritage sites, drawn from the Atika atlas. Free, no spam.