Le cavità sotterranee lungo la Portuense e il cimitero scomparso di San Felice

Since Roma times, the extrction of building material for the cultivation of the tufa (in the alternative tufa of Monteverde) was widespread along the route of the Campana - Portuense road and involved a large area around the road axis, from the southernmost hills of Monteverde to Magliana. Over the centuries, the tuff of Monteverde for its mechanical qualities and ease of processing was widely used as a building material and was cultivated mainly underground. In these underground quarries large areas of necropolis developed; they marked for centuries the funeral destination of the Portuense territory. The underground Christian cemetery of San Felice was located near a church on the third mile of the road axis. The cemetery, dedi- cated to the antipope Saint Felix II, was restored in three dif- ferent historical periods up to 858 A.D., and was a pilgrimage destination until about 1100 A.D. However, after about 1500 A.D., the entrance and location of the catacomb were lost. Over the centuries, many authors have looked for it in vain and the researches continues to this day. The impossibility of finding this disappeared catacomb lies in the fact that the ancient route of the Via Campana-Portuense was different from the present one, and that the starting point of the road within the Urbe is not known with certainty. What is certain is that it was located on a hill from which one could see, in the distance, the area im- mediately north of the Basilica of St. Paul. The place was reach- able from Via Campana-Portuense uphill, through a small path starting from the bank of the Tiber river.