THE VATICAN has unveiled a remarkably preserved 2,000-year-old burial ground discovered inside its walls, complete with frescoes, mosaics, mausoleums and Latin headstones.

The necropolis, with 250 tombs containing the bones of pagans and Christians, is described as second in importance only to that beneath St Peter’s Basilica, which contains the tomb of St Peter. It came to light three years ago, when workers uncovered tombstones with Ancient Roman inscriptions during excavations for a three-storey car park.

Francesco Buranelli, director of the Vatican Museums, said that putting the necropolis on show formed part of the celebrations for the 500th anniversary of the museums, founded in 1506 by Pope Julius II, patron of Michelangelo and Raphael.Giandomenico Spinola, the archaeologist in charge of the Vatican dig, said work on the site — which he described as a “small sepulchral Pompeii” — was continuing. From Friday, though, visitors will be able to view the 500sq m necropolis from a walkway, in groups of 25, for €5 (£3.38) a head.

From the walkway, they can look down on skeletons including that of an infant buried with a hen’s egg. The egg, whose smashed shell was reconstructed by archaeologists, might have symbolised hopes for a rebirth, an official said.

The burial sites help to “document the middle class, which usually escapes us”, said Paolo Liverani, an archaeologist. “You don’t construct history with only generals and kings.”

Cardinal Francesco Marchisano, head of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, said that digging below ground in Rome was always problematic because of all the wonderful things that were down there. “We have here the resting places of all ranks of Roman society, from the noble to the humble.”

Conservation work so far has cost €400,000, paid for by the Vatican. Professor Spinola said that the tombs, on what was once the Via Triumphalis, ranged from the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD, with wealthier Romans buried in decorated mausoleums and the less well off in simple graves.

In Roman times Vatican Hill, across the Tiber from central Rome and set above a circus used by the emperors Nero and Caligula, had two burial grounds, one on Via Cornelia — believed to be the site of St Peter’s grave — and one on Via Triumphalis.

One headstone in the newly found necropolis marks the last resting place of Alcimus, one of Nero’s slaves, who according to the inscription was in charge of maintaining the scenery at the Theatre of Pompey.

Vatican scholars said that the burial ground had been so well preserved partly because of a landslide at the end of the 2nd century AD which covered much of it. The mosaic floor of one mausoleum depicts Dionysus, the god of wine, propped up by a satyr.

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