Catacombs

Catacombs are ancient, human-made underground passageways or final resting place of refuges or subterranean cemeteries composed thereof.  Many are under cities and have served as a refuge for safety during wars or as a meeting place for cults during historic times.

The first burial  galleries to be referred to as catacombs lie beneath San Sebastiano fuori le mura, in Rome. The derivation of the word itself is disputed and it remains unclear if it ultimately derives from the cemetery itself or from the locality in which it is found. There is no doubt however that the San Sebastiano catacombs are the first to be referred to as such.

The word now refers to any network of caves, castles, grottos, or subterranean galleries that were used in medieval times as refuges during wars, as worship places, or for burial of the dead.

There are also catacomb-like burial chambers in Anatolia, Turkey; in Sousse, North Africa; in Naples, Italy; in Syracuse, Italy; Trier, Germany; Kiev. Capuchin catacombs of Palermo, Sicily were used as late as 1920s. Catacombs were popular in England in the 19th Century, and can be seen in many of the grand cemeteries of the time, such as Sheffield General Cemetery. There are catacombs in Bulgaria  near Aladzha Monastery and in Romania  as medieval underground galleries in Bucharest.