Catacombs

Catacombs

Subterranean burial places consisting of galleries with niches for sarcophagi and small chapels for funeral feasts and commemorative services.

Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Catacombs

 

subterranean passages of artificial or natural origin, used in antiquity for the fulfillment of religious rites and for the burial of the dead. They were known in the vicinity of Rome, in Naples, on the islands of Sicily and Malta, in Egypt (Alexandria), and in North Africa, Southwest Asia, Asia Minor, the Balkans, and other locations. The most extensive catacombs are the Roman ones. The catacombs were widely used by early Christian communities in the second to the fourth centuries. They consist of branched labyrinths of narrow galleries and small halls; some of them are decorated with rich murals from the late classical and from the early medieval period. Structures similar to the catacombs have been preserved from the ancient Rus’ period in the Kiev-Pecherskaia Laura (monastery). The term catacombs is sometimes used for large, abandoned subterranean excavations—large quarries and so forth.

The catacombs of Odessa and Adzhimushkai, which were used during the partisan struggle, are famous.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.