Vatican
City, 19 November 2013 (VIS) – At 4 p.m. today, in the Basilica of
San Silvestro at the catacombs of Priscilla, the Pontifical
Commission for Sacred Archaeology will present the results of the
work carried out there during the last five years. The speakers at
the presentation will be Fr. Ciro Benedettini C.P., vice director of
the Holy See Press Office; Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of
the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology (PCAS); Msgr.
Giovanni Carrù, secretary of the same Commission, Fabrizio Bisconti,
superintendent; Giorgia Abeltino, head of public policy at Google;
and Barbara Mazzei and Raffaella Giuliani, both members of PCAS.
During
the last five years, archaeological excavation works have been
carried out, along with the conservational restoration of the
paintings inside the catacombs and the renovation and reorganisation
of one of the most evocative spaces, the basilica in which Pope
Silvestro was buried. Of particular note is the restoration of the
cubiculum of Lazzarus, in the subterranean cemetery close to the
papal basilica, which was the last in a long series of conservational
procedures carried out in the cemetery of Priscilla.
The
basilica of San Silvestro is composed of two spaces, one dedicated to
worship and the other used in the past as a deposit for ancient
sculptural material unearthed during the excavations. These include
over 700 fragments of sarcophagi, meticulously restored, from the
necropolises which during the late imperial age extended along this
part of the Via Salaria Nova. The result is an important body of
late-ancient funerary sculptural works, arranged and presented to the
public as a museum exhibit.
This
valuable example of sculptural heritage may be viewed on-line at the
site mupris.net; the complex of the catacombs of Priscilla may now
also be admired in the program Google Maps, in the dedicated section
“Views Priscilla”.
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