Important Roman and early Christian archaeological remains have been destroyed to make way for a six-storey underground car park being built on Vatican territory for Jubilee 2000, according to a leading Italian archaeologist. The company building the Vatican car park under the Janiculum ran into a vast necropolis in the heart of the hill, which has been silently removed, Prof Lorenzo Bianchi told the Rome daily, La Repubblica, earlier this week.
"The car park for the jubilee was considered so urgent that one of the most sacred sites of Christianity and the shared heritage of our history have not been respected," he said.
The professor, an expert on Roman archaeology who works for the National Research Council, said the graves of Dutch pilgrims who came to Rome to defend St Peter's Basilica against the Saracens in the 9th century were among the remains destroyed.
Construction of the car park, intended for coaches carrying an anticipated influx of tourists during next year's jubilee celebrations, has also interfered with the area where the first Christians were martyred and where St Peter was crucified, Prof Bianchi said.
Two rooms decorated with Roman frescoes of birds and masks, believed to have belonged to the mother of the emperor Caligula, were discovered in the area where an access ramp is being constructed on Italian territory.
A Vatican spokeswoman said the Holy See was preparing an official response to the allegations. "As far as we know, the sites referred to are located on Italian state territory. Like everyone, we are waiting for further information," she said.
"My understanding is that what they found was not Christian remains but an old Roman house. Some frescoes were found on the walls of the house and work has been delayed while they wait for them to be removed," a spokesman for the Vatican agency, responsible for jubilee construction projects, said. An official of one of the companies responsible for the construction work yesterday denied that any archaeological remains had been destroyed on Vatican territory.
A statement by Rome's archaeological superintendent, Mr Adriano La Regina, at the weekend referred to "archaeological devastations and the desecration of the sites that witnessed the martyrdom of the first Christians" on territory not under Italian control.