The northern end of one of the city's biggest squares, Piazza Santa Lucia , is dominated by the Basilica di Santa Lucia al Sepolcro. The 17th-century church is built on the spot where the city's patron saint, Lucia, an aristocratic girl who devoted herself to saintliness after being blessed by St Agatha, was martyred in 304. The main drawcard is Caravaggio's Seppellimento di Santa Lucia (The Burial of Saint Lucy, 1609), which, after a lengthy restoration at Palazzo Bellomo, has been returned to its rightful place over the basilica's main altar.
The church is an impressive sight with its columned portico, Norman tower and 18th-century octagonal chapel known as the Sepolcro. Beneath the church is an impressive network of catacombs, used by the early Christians for burials.
According to Roman law, Christians were not allowed to bury their dead within the city limits (which, during the Roman occupation, did not extend beyond Ortygia), so the early Christians used the outlying district of Tyche for burials, accessing underground aqueducts unused since Greek times. New tunnels were carved out, and the result was a labyrinthine network of burial chambers.
