At the site is preserved a section of the ancient Via Latina, which connected Rome to Capua, still paved for a long stretch with the ancient flint basalt paving, and on both sides numerous funerary monuments and historical and material evidence from the Republican era up to the Early Middle Ages.
The discovery and excavation of the area were carried out between 1857 and 1858 by Lorenzo Fortunati, a teacher passionate about archaeology. The first monument that stands out on the right side of the road is the so-called Tomb of the Cornelii or Barberini, named after the aristocratic family who were the last owners of the area.
The funerary monument, dated to the 2nd century A.D., consists of two above-ground floors and an underground burial chamber, surrounded by a corridor, also used for burials, paved with mosaics. On the outside, there are architectural terracotta decorations originally painted. The interior was covered by frescoed and stuccoed vaults.
Shortly after the Barberini tomb, on the left side of the road is the so-called Fortunati 25 tomb. It consists of a square-plan structure, with an underground burial chamber, accessed from the Via Latina by means of a two-flight staircase whose steps still bear traces of marble slab cladding.
Continuing along the route of the Via Latina, which preserves paved flooring in some points, on the right side is the so-called Tomb of the Valeri, whose currently visible above-ground structure was built at the end of the 19th century, resting on the original masonry.
Opposite the Tomb of the Valeri is the Tomb of the Pancrazi, dating from the late 1st to early 2nd century A.D., named after the inscription referencing the funerary college of the “Pancratii,” placed on the front of a sarcophagus of spouses inside the first hypogeum chamber. The last visible tomb on the left side of the road is that of the Calpurnii: enclosed within a fence, it consists of a single underground chamber that retains traces of the original plaster and stucco lining; arcosolia open on the wall to house sarcophagi.
On the right side of the road just before the end of the Park stands the facade of the so-called Baccelli tomb, all that remains of a tomb that remained intact above ground until 1959, when much of the building collapsed. The structure is typical of 2nd century A.D. tombs, with two brick floors decorated with cornices, corbels, and an architrave, and two underground funerary chambers, currently not accessible.
In the area behind the Tomb of the Pancrazi emerge the remains of a large villa built at the end of the 1st century A.D. and inhabited until the early 6th century when Demetriade, descendant of the Anicii family, erected in a sector of the villa a basilica dedicated to St. Stephen the Protomartyr, a pilgrimage destination still until the 13th century, whose remains are still partially visible.
