Inside the Basilica of Saint Valentine it is possible to visit the urn of the Saint, Patron of Terni and Protector of Lovers. In 1605 the Municipality of Terni funded the excavations to recover the Sacred Body. «Beneath the high altar, at a depth of twenty palms, a marble ark was found, rough on the outside, but inside finely carved in relief and with a cross the length of an arm, containing a lead chest. Once the lid was removed, the body of Saint Valentine was recognized, five feet long, with the related marble inscription above it».
«It was 1696 when the municipality had a sarcophagus built for the Sacred Body and arranged a great feast for the Patron», a sarcophagus that still today lies beneath the altar of the Basilica, located on the exact spot of the tomb holding the remains of the Sacred Body in one of the earliest Christian cemeteries, where for some years a small archaeological museum has been set up.
