Rome under Rome
The new Underground Cavities Map
The city of Rome preserves beneath its surface an extraordinarily complex heritage, the result of natural and human-made stratification developed over thousands of years. Ancient quarries, catacombs, hypogea, hydraulic tunnels, and numerous other underground structures form a structural component of the capital’s urban history, while also representing an element of major importance for territorial knowledge and the prevention of ground instability phenomena.
- https://www.isprambiente.gov.it/en/ispra-events/rome-under-rome
- Rome under Rome
- 2026-06-10T09:30:00+02:00
- 2026-06-10T13:00:00+02:00
- The new Underground Cavities Map The city of Rome preserves beneath its surface an extraordinarily complex heritage, the result of natural and human-made stratification developed over thousands of years. Ancient quarries, catacombs, hypogea, hydraulic tunnels, and numerous other underground structures form a structural component of the capital’s urban history, while also representing an element of major importance for territorial knowledge and the prevention of ground instability phenomena.
- What highlight
- When Jun 10, 2026 from 09:30 AM to 01:00 PM (Europe/Berlin / UTC200)
- Where Rome, sala conferenze Parco Naturale dell'Appia Antica
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In this context comes the Underground Cavities Map of Rome 2026, a major update to the body of knowledge concerning the distribution of underground voids within the urban territory of Rome. The cartography, resulting from the integration of scientific sources, historical cartographic archives, institutional databases, archaeological maps, and data derived from direct investigations, provides an unprecedented overall view of the city’s underground heritage.
The analysis made it possible to collect and organize approximately 5,600 point elements and 1,500 linear and polygonal elements distributed across about 350 km² of the urban territory, enabling the identification of the main types of underground cavities and the creation of a density map of hypogeal systems. The areas with the highest concentration are located mainly in the historic center and in the eastern and southeastern sectors of the city, closely linked to ancient quarrying activities in pyroclastic deposits and to the presence of extensive catacomb complexes.
The presentation event scheduled for June 10, 2026, represents an opportunity for discussion and knowledge-sharing dedicated to this new analytical tool, conceived as support for large-scale territorial analyses, urban planning, and preliminary assessments of susceptibility to subsidence phenomena.
It is important to emphasize that, although the map represents a significant advancement in the systematization of available knowledge, it also presents intrinsic limitations related to the heterogeneous nature of the sources used, the varying levels of accuracy and completeness of the information, and the possible presence of undocumented cavities, inaccessible sites, or structures altered by urban development. For this reason, the map should not be considered a tool for site-specific verification or detailed design activities, but rather a knowledge base intended to guide further technical investigatio