Final resting place is in the 'bare earth' under St Peter's
Basilica The final resting place of John Paul II is in the
cramped cemetery beneath St Peter's Basilica, near the burial
chamber of the original pontiff St Peter. After the funeral
service the Pope's coffin was taken down St Peter's Stairs to
the narrow passageways of the grottoes and the former grave of
Pope John XXIII, who died in 1963. The crypt became vacant when
John Paul II beatified him in 2000 and moved him onto the main
floor of the basilica. In his will, John Paul II said he wanted
to be buried "in the bare earth, not a tomb". His grave is
indicated by a simple marble marker bearing his name and lies
buried between the last resting place of two fellow popes, Pope
Pius VI and Pope Innocent IX. Pius VI, Pope between 1775 and
1799, was a fierce critic of the French Revolution. In 1796
Napoleon's armies attacked the Papal States and he died a
prisoner of the French in Valence three year's later. Innocent
IX was Pope for only two months in 1591