Santi Quaranta

Near the basilica of the Madonna delle Grazie, between the San Lorenzo and Cellarulo districts, survive the remains of an imposing Roman cryptoporticus: a system of vaulted galleries with a main corridor about sixty metres long. Its date is uncertain, as is its function, which scholars suggest may have been a public passage, a covered market or a sanctuary.The name comes from a Lombard church dedicated to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, built over the galleries and later lost. For centuries the complex was used as a farm store and for making ropes, until the 1943 bombings brought down most of its vaults. We love that since 2015 a group of volunteers has looked after it, also organising events open to the public.