The Capuchin Crypt lies beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione, at Via Veneto 27, 300 m from Piazza Barberini: a corridor about 30 metres long lined with six small rooms whose walls and vaults are decorated with the bones of some 3,700 people, most of them Capuchin friars. The visit begins with the Capuchin Museum, eight rooms set up in the friary, where a Saint Francis in Meditation attributed to Caravaggio is on display. A ticket costs €10, audio guide included; the site is open every day, with a midday break. Allow about 1 hour. The place is meant as a memento mori, a reminder of death, not a macabre curiosity: an inscription warns visitors, "What you are, we once were; what we are, you will be".
Highlights
The Crypt of the Skulls
Hundreds of stacked skulls form the walls, the niches and the central arch; dead friars dressed in their habits lie or stand in the niches. The vaults are covered with rosettes, garlands and chandeliers made of vertebrae and smaller bones, and each room has its dominant bone: tibias and femurs in one, pelvises in another.
The Crypt of the Three Skeletons
On the ceiling, a skeleton framed by a ring of bones holds a scythe and a pair of scales, symbols of death and divine judgement. According to the museum, it is probably a princess of the Barberini family, who had the church and the friary built.
The Crypt of the Resurrection
This room frames a painting of the Raising of Lazarus, by an unknown artist, with arches of skulls, femurs and tibias, a symbol of hope in eternal life. Next to it, the chapel where Mass is said, the only room without bones, holds a painting by Jan François Courtois of the Virgin and Child with the souls in Purgatory, and the memorial plaques of Maria Felice Peretti (died 1656) and Giuseppe Matteo Orsini (died 1660).
The museum and the Caravaggio
The eight rooms tell the story of the friary, built from 1626 for the Barberini by the friar architect Michele da Bergamo, and of the Capuchin order, up to Padre Pio. A whole room is devoted to Saint Francis in Meditation, given to the friars by Francesco de Rustici: its attribution to Caravaggio is still debated, as another version is kept in Carpineto Romano.
Infos pratiques
Tips
Full-price ticket €10; reduced €6.50 for ages 7 to 17, over-65s and students; free up to age 6 inclusive and for disabled visitors and their companion. The audio guide is included. Buying online adds a €1.50 fee per ticket; tickets can be neither refunded nor changed (prices checked in October 2026). Modest dress is required in the crypt, with shoulders covered and legs covered to the knee; large bags are not allowed, and free lockers are available. Photos are allowed for private use only.
How to get there
Via Vittorio Veneto 27, 00187 Rome, at the bottom of Via Veneto, 300 m from Piazza Barberini. Metro line A, Barberini station, about 3 minutes on foot. Buses 52, 53, 61, 62, 63, 80, 83 and 160, stops on Piazza Barberini and Via Veneto. The visit combines easily with Palazzo Barberini and the Trevi Fountain, 10 minutes away on foot.
Opening hours
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