Venerable English College opens crypt and Roman road to public

Rome’s Venerable English College, the oldest British institution outside the UK, is expanding its guided tours to include public access to its underground areas for the first time.

Located on Via di Monserrato near Piazza Farnese, the college has stood in the heart of Rome for more than 650 years. The new itinerary will allow visitors to explore its mediaeval crypt and a buried stretch of the ancient Via Triumphalis.

The crypt, largely excavated in the late 15th century under the patronage of Henry VII, originally served the Confraternity of St Thomas of Canterbury before becoming a burial site. It houses an ossuary created in 1818 to preserve remains recovered from tombs desecrated during the Napoleonic occupation.

A highlight is a rare early 15th-century fresco of the Crucifixion attributed to the school of Antoniazzo Romano. The image once stood in the Salone del Crocifisso on Via dei Cappellari and was used as a place of final prayer for those condemned by the papal court. Tradition holds that Beatrice Cenci prayed before the fresco prior to her execution in 1599.

Six metres below street level lies a section of the Via Triumphalis, discovered in 1870, which once linked the Roman Forum to the Vatican Hill. Archaeologists have also connected the site to the Stabula Factionis Venetae, headquarters of the famed Blue chariot-racing team at the Circus Maximus.

Roman road at the Venerable English College

Founded in 1362 as a hospice for English and Welsh pilgrims, the college became a seminary in 1579 under Pope Gregory XIII. Over the following century, 44 former students were martyred after returning to Protestant England.

Guided tours, organised by Mirabilia Art Wonders, take place on Saturdays. Tickets cost €12 and must be booked in advance.