It was accidentally rediscovered in March 1911 when the owner of a small villa decided to carry out works to check the state of his property.
This unearthed the entrance to an underground cubiculum which led to a completely frescoed main burial chamber.
He informed the Pontificia commissione di archeologia sacra and at the end of March the same year its secretary Rudolf Kanzler inspected the complex - he did not find any traces of Christianity but produced an accurate photographic record of it.
It was reopened in 1976,[1] this time through a ground floor trapdoor in the small villa - the Sovrintendenza alle Antichità di Roma produced another photographic survey, but then closed up the complex again.
An expropriation case is underway and in the meantime it is privately run with the small villa on top of it rented by the Sovrintendenza Archeologica del Lazio.