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Carceri Vecchie Roman Mausoleum

Mausoleo delle Carceri Vecchie, Carceri Vecchie

tomb · Campania, Italy

What it is
The Carceri Vecchie ("Old Prisons") is a round Roman tomb of the first century AD on the Via Appia at San Prisco, just outside ancient Capua (Santa Maria Capua Vetere).
What you’ll see
The tomb sits below today's ground level, in a sunken enclosure next to a shopping centre car park. It is built as an outer ring around an inner cylinder, in two storeys (it.wikipedia).
Worth the trip?
As an extra stop on a day at Santa Maria Capua Vetere, yes, if you book. It is about 2 km east of the amphitheatre and just over 600 m from the Conocchia, another Roman tomb on the Appia, so the two make one short outing.
Getting there & cost
The tomb is on the Via Appia (Via Nazionale Appia) in San Prisco, next to the Centro Commerciale Le Corti. OpenStreetMap shows a free car park on the Via Appia about 40 m away.Restricted access · No admission price is published · checked 21 October 2026Hours, tickets and parking
A low, round Roman building of two storeys standing in a sunken, paved enclosure ringed by a strip of grass. The lower storey has arched niches between pilasters banded in red brick, a narrower upper ring sits on top, and parked cars and modern buildings show beyond the rim of the enclosure.
The tomb in its sunken enclosure beside the Via Appia at San Prisco. · Photo: Tery14 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The curved outer wall of the tomb seen close up, faced with bands of small diamond-set stones between courses of red brick and divided by brick-banded pilasters, with a doorway closed by an iron grille at the left and plants growing from the top.
The curved wall of the lower storey, with the entrance at the left. · Photo: Gius195 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A stretch of the outer wall with two round-headed niches and pilasters banded in brick, the wall between them faced with small square stones laid in a diagonal net pattern, under a crumbling upper edge.
Niches and reticulate facing (opus reticulatum) on the lower storey. · Photo: Gius195 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The Carceri Vecchie (“Old Prisons”) is a round Roman tomb of the first century AD on the Via Appia at San Prisco, just outside ancient Capua (Santa Maria Capua Vetere). Its lower storey still stands with its columns and niches, and the burial chamber inside keeps its vaults.

What is there today

The tomb sits below today’s ground level, in a sunken enclosure next to a shopping centre car park. It is built as an outer ring around an inner cylinder, in two storeys (it.wikipedia). The lower storey stands on a base of crushed-tile mortar edged with tuff blocks. It is faced with small stones in a net pattern (opus reticulatum) and ringed with columns on plinths with Tuscan capitals, with rectangular and semicircular niches between them. The upper storey has the same shape, smaller and without decoration, and survives only in part (it.wikipedia). The Ministry of Culture calls the plan circular; it.wikipedia calls it elliptical, with the long axis at right angles to the road.

On the road side stands the small chapel of Santa Maria della Libera, built in place of the tomb’s original entrance, a long corridor down from the Via Appia, so the way in is now on the left side of the tomb (it.wikipedia). Inside, the burial chamber is laid out as a Greek cross, with barrel-vaulted arms meeting under a pointed cross vault. Fragments of painted plaster survive from a rich decoration that the article dates to the age of Augustus and Tiberius; the rest was stripped at some unknown time. A trapdoor in the arm towards the chapel leads down to an underground burial room (it.wikipedia). The ministry mentions remains of stucco decoration.

Is it worth the trip?

As an extra stop on a day at Santa Maria Capua Vetere, yes, if you book. It is about 2 km east of the amphitheatre and just over 600 m from the Conocchia, another Roman tomb on the Appia, so the two make one short outing. Without a booking you see the outside from beyond the railings, which takes a few minutes; with one you go down into the vaulted burial chamber with traces of its painted decoration. It is not worth a journey on its own.

Getting there

The tomb is on the Via Appia (Via Nazionale Appia) in San Prisco, next to the Centro Commerciale Le Corti. OpenStreetMap shows a free car park on the Via Appia about 40 m away. The railway station of Santa Maria Capua Vetere is about 1.7 km away, and no bus stop is mapped within 500 m, so a car or a bike is easiest.

Visits are by appointment. The Ministry of Culture lists the tomb as open on request every day, with booking required on +39 0823 844206, and publishes no admission price (cultura.gov.it, read 21 October 2026). It has also opened on announced days: guided visits for Appia Day on 2 October 2022, the first week of January 2024 (by telephone booking), and the European Heritage Days on 28 and 29 September 2024, 09.15-13.00 with no booking needed (cultura.gov.it).

Visiting details

Opening hours
By appointment only. The Ministry of Culture lists the tomb as open on request every day of the week, with booking required by telephone on +39 0823 844206. It has also opened on announced days, such as the European Heritage Days of 28-29 September 2024 (09.15-13.00, last entry 12.15, no booking needed).
Tickets
No admission price is published; the ministry's listing gives only the booking number.
Parking
A free car park on the Via Appia about 40 m away (OSM way/512687024, fee=no, 100 spaces).

Before you go

  • Visits are by telephone booking only; without one you see the outside from beyond the railings.
  • OpenStreetMap marks the site as not wheelchair accessible.

Hours and prices checked 21 October 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.

History

The tomb was built in the imperial period, almost certainly in the first century AD, outside the walls of Capua along the Via Appia (it.wikipedia; Pleiades). Popular tradition took it for the prison of the gladiators who fought in the city’s amphitheatre, which gave it the name Carceri Vecchie. It is in fact a burial chamber (it.wikipedia).

Drawings of the 19th century show that for at least two centuries the tomb has stood well below the level of the road. The underground burial chamber is thought to have been part of the original design, while the rest ended up below the road as the road surface was raised over time (it.wikipedia). Around the middle of the 19th century, certainly after 1839, the original entrance was removed and the chapel of Santa Maria della Libera built in its place (it.wikipedia).

More photographs

A small cream-painted chapel with a pediment, a holy image over the door and an iron gate, standing by the road; to its right, behind railings and a sign reading Carceri Vecchie, part of the tomb's brick-banded wall shows.
The chapel of Santa Maria della Libera, built in place of the tomb's original entrance. · Photo: Gius195 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Inside the tomb, a wall with faded painted plaster in pale and dark red outlining a framed panel, and below it bare stonework laid in a net pattern.
Fragments of painted plaster inside the burial chamber. · Photo: Gius195 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

  • A long, low ruin of rubble masonry with a row of dark arched openings and patches of red brick, seen across a wide field of mown, straw-coloured grass under a cloudy sky.

    Photo: PietroCifone · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons

    18 km · city · Campania

    Cales

    The ancient town survives across its whole extent, though the motorway runs through it, and the Ministry of Culture says plainly that its remains are not easy to read on the ground (cultura.gov.it).

  • A wide, low hall cut into pale tuff, its flat ceiling held up by thick piers of living rock that are lined with rows of empty burial niches, lit by small lamps set on the floor.

    Photo: Dominik Matus · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    24 km · necropolis · Campania

    Catacombs of San Gennaro

    The catacombs lie on two levels, side by side rather than stacked, and both are unusually spacious, unlike the better-known catacombs of Rome, because the tuff was easy to cut and strong enough to stand (the operator).

  • A long, low barrel-vaulted corridor cut into rough rock, lit by a row of small lamps along the ceiling, with a level earth floor running away into the dark.

    Photo: Mentnafunangann · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    25 km · necropolis · Campania

    Catacombs of Saint Gaudiosus

    The visit starts in the crypt under the church's raised choir, which was once a corridor of the catacomb and is now a chapel with ten side altars, painted with stories of the martyrs by Bernardino Fera (it.wikipedia; the operator).

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 868114456CC BY
Wikidata Q48801957CC0
OpenStreetMap way/568280643ODbL
Wikipedia (it) — Mausoleo delle Carceri VecchieCC BY-SA 4.0
Ministero della Cultura — Mausoleo delle Carceri Vecchie (visits on request, booking)licence not recorded
Ministero della Cultura — European Heritage Days 2024 at the Mausoleo delle Carceri Vecchielicence not recorded
Ministero della Cultura — special opening of the Mausoleo delle Carceri Vecchie, 1-6 January 2024licence not recorded
Ministero della Cultura — Appia Day 2022, guided visits to the Carceri Vecchielicence not recorded