Friendly
From the basilica of Santa Maria della Sanità there is access to the catacomb of St. Gaudioso, who arrived in Naples probably in 439. The translation of the relics of St. Gaudioso, within the city (9th cent.) led to the abandonment of the site, until the discovery in the 16th century of the oldest existing Marian image in Naples dated 5th-6th cent.
A characteristic feature is undoubtedly the burial of the skulls of the deceased encased in the walls of the ambulatory and the opening of a new area below the crypt that was intended for the creation of the so-called seditoi, seats dug into the tufa with a vase underneath, inside which the deceased were left to dry out before being laid to rest. On either side of the ambulatory are valuable painted or mosaicated arcosolii, in which Christian symbols such as the lamb, peacock and bunches of grapes dated from the 5th-6th centuries are depicted.
