Labirinto di Roma

Labirinto Caffarella

Useful Information

Location:	Via della Caffarella, 44, 00178 Roma RM. (41.860804, 12.517103)
Open:	All year Sat, Sun 16. Bike Tour: All year Sun 10. [2024]
Fee:	Adults EUR 15. Bike Tour: Adults EUR 25. [2024]
Classification:
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:	L=5 km, T=16 °C.
Guided tours:	D=2 h. Bike Tour: D=3 h.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Labirinto di Roma, Via della Caffarella, 44, 00178 Roma RM, Tel: +39-0.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

Description

Labirinto di Roma (labyrinth of Rome) is the largest underground structure in Rome with 5 km of tunnels. It began in the 1st century AD, when Rome expanded exponentially. Large numbers of people poured into the city, in a century it reached a population of over a million. At this time this number of people was quite hard to handle, it was necessary to build housing such as domus and villas, but also infrastructures such as aqueducts and sewers. Enormous amounts of building material were needed, especially stones Along the Appian Way quarries were opened up, to extract the necessary rocks. The workers were mostly slaves, who not only worked but also lived underground. The quarries, originally separate, grew until they were all connected forming a huge labyrinth. This took actually very long, the quarries were in use until the early 20th century.

While this site is actually inside a historic quarry, the underground museum is more an exhibition, and less the actual site of the displays. The passages were modeled to represent typical use of underground structure in Roma and across the Roman empire. There are quarries, catacombs, a mushroom farm and a mithraeum. Younger uses are hideouts during the World Wars, and there is an underground escape room.