Vatican grottoes
The Vatican Grottoes below St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City are a large crypt with papal tombs and consist of several large rooms. Together with the confessio and pallia niche , under which there is the Peter's tomb with the “ Tropaion of the Apostle” from 160, as well as the Capella Clementina at about the floor level of the first Constantine St. Peter's Basilica from 324. A narrow staircase in the front right pillar of the crossing under the dome of St. Peter's Basilica leads down into the grottoes . They are visited annually by millions of believers and tourists from all over the world. The Vatican Grottoes are not to be confused with the Vatican Necropolis . The latter is located below the Vatican Grottoes and is an ancient burial ground.
23 of 264 deceased popes are buried here, including Gregory V († 999) from Germany . The German Emperor Otto II († 983) also found his final resting place here. The third German is the theologian and politician of the German Center Party , Ludwig Kaas († 1952), buried in the Vatican grottoes. His body was born in 1957 at the request of Pope Pius XII. from Campo Santo Teutonico to this place, since under Kaas' direction the expansion of the caves in their present form took place in connection with the excavations under St. Peter in the 1940s. The reason for the excavations and thus also the expansion of the caves was the excavation of the grave for Pope Pius XI. in March 1939, which was to be made accessible to the faithful and during which the ancient Roman necropolis was discovered below the present-day grottoes of St. Peter.
Since Pope Pius X († 1914), whose bones have been laid out in a glass coffin in St. Peter's Basilica since his canonization in 1954, all subsequent popes have been buried here. Pope Pius XII who ordered the excavations, was buried in 1958 in the central axis of the ring crypt behind the Capella Clementina. The last burial was that of Pope John Paul II in 2005 in the former tomb of John XXIII. († 1963), whose relics were also transferred to a glass shrine in St. Peter's Basilica after his beatification in 2000. On the occasion of the beatification of John Paul II, his bones were also reburied in a side chapel of St. Peter's Basilica.
Queen Christina of Sweden († 1689), who converted to the Catholic Church , also found her final resting place in the Vatican Grottoes, as did the English titular queen Maria Clementina Stuart († 1735), who was born in Poland .
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Coordinates: 41 ° 54 ′ 7.7 ″ N , 12 ° 27 ′ 12.9 ″ E