Il paesaggio religioso di carattere cristiano nel suburbio di Roma: strade e visibilità

If the Christian cemeteries in the suburbs of Rome, established starting from the end of the 2nd century, were inserted with-out marked distinctive characteristics into the already existing surface tombs, the numerous churches that arose in relation to the tombs of martyrs and popes, around sixty by 7th century, constituted a profound transformation. They configured a completely new religious landscape, described by the compilers of the early medieval itineraria: poles of attraction for the pilgrims, they often imposed themselves due to their considerable size, for being the center of complex agglomerations of buildings and for their favor-able positioning for immediate visibility, in some cases on hills that allowed them to be seen even from a considerable distance. A group of churches further away from the city may also have played the role of a ‘boundary marker’ for the diocese of Rome.