Mamertine Prison tickets

Who runs it and how to buy

The Mamertine Prison, the Carcer Tullianum of ancient Rome, is run by the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi and sold through its Omnia Vatican & Rome portal. So it has its own ticket, separate from the state sites around it. Two official options:

• Entry with audio guide: €10, or €5 for ages 6–17 and EU students up to 25. About 40 minutes. The audio guide (English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese) runs in the Vatican&Rome app, so download it before you arrive.
• Entry with guided visit: €15, €10 reduced. About an hour, in English, Italian, French or Spanish. Meet at the entrance at least 15 minutes before your slot.

You book a day and time, and that booking guarantees your entry. Opening hours are 9am–5pm every day.

On the first Sunday of the month it isn't free, but buying on the spot that day costs €5 for adults and nothing for the reduced categories.

What you see

Two chambers, one above the other, cut into the foot of the Capitoline Hill: the Carcer on top and below it the older Tullianum. Rome's enemies were held here before execution, Jugurtha and Vercingetorix among them, and Christian tradition places the imprisonment of Saints Peter and Paul here. It's a short visit, about 40 minutes with the audio guide.

Official ticket or a combo?

Resellers focus on bundles. Tiqets sells both the entry with a digital audio guide and a ticket combining the Mamertine with the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill; Headout has a combo that adds the Colosseum. They make sense if you're planning a whole archaeology day and want one booking. For the prison alone, the official portal is cheaper. GetYourGuide has guided walks and a tour that adds the catacombs. Before buying a combo, read how the entry times for each site work, so you're not racing from the prison to the Colosseum.

Getting there

The entrance is on Clivo Argentario, the lane that climbs from the Forum to the Capitoline. Buses 40 and 64 (from Termini or St Peter's), H and 170 (from Termini) and tram 8 (from Trastevere) all stop at Piazza Venezia; from there it's about a 5-minute walk towards the Colosseum.

The site is not accessible to visitors with reduced mobility.