Also known as the Vatican Necropolis, The Tomb of the Dead or St. Peter’s Tomb, the "Scavi" area was discovered beneath St. Peter’s Basilica in the 1940s (around the time of World War II) when the Vatican commissioned excavations to be carried out there before Pope Pius IX was set to be buried in the space. Long presumed to be the final resting place of St. Peter, it was presumed that there wasn’t much down there.
What archaeologists found however, was a burial ground (aka a necropolis) dating all the way back to the 4th century. They found the temple of Emperor Constantine who had ruled at that time and a spot of ancient graffiti that translated as Peter is here. You should never take a graffiti artist's word for it, but archaeologists today are quite sure that bone fragments retrieved here belonged to Saint Peter himself, one of Jesus’s twelve apostles.
We actually saw Peter's bones (from a distance), buried directly under the papal altar in St. Peter's up above. We also saw the tombs of many other popes, including Pope Pius XII and recently beatified Pope Paul VI.
This was a great way to start the day!
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