At the end of 1880s, a colonel of the 4th Algerian Rifle Battalion stationed near the Tunisian city of Sousse, the ancient Hadrumetum, accidentally discovered a catacomb gallery, sparking the interest of local society in Christian antiquities.
It was only at the end of 1903, however, that Abbot Leynaud and doctor Carton managed to receive funds and permits to undertake excavations, thus uncovering what became known as the Catacomb of the Good Shepherd, the first and largest Christian catacomb found in North Africa.
This was the starting point of a compelling story of discovery that, through ups and downs, led the French abbot to recover no less than five catacombs in the Sousse area. This led to a wider knowledge of the Tunisian catacombs from an architectural point of view (with the production of the first maps), and of the materials found, particularly funerary inscriptions and oil lamps.
These excavations brought visitors and tourists interested in Christianity to the ancient Hadrumetum for the first time. This was precisely one of the intentions of the abbot, who is also strongly committed to promoting the site from a touristic point of view.
Leynaud’s work was the first and last systematic excavation of the catacombs of Sousse, which still remain intermittently visitable today and still tend to be little known.
Anyone still interested in this story today will find all the historical and archaeological details in a series of reprints and publications of the seminal volume ‘Les Catacombes Africaines’, still the only real handbook on the catacombs of Sousse.
Catacombs rediscovery 