Italian City of the Dead: Palermo Catacombs of Capuchin

In the Sicilian city of Palermo, the catacombs of the Capuchins (Catacombe dei Cappuccini) are located - underground burials, where the remains of more than 8,000 people rest. The peculiarity of these catacombs is that the embalmed, mummified and skeletonized bodies of the deceased stand open, lie, and hang, forming rather terrible compositions. This is the largest necropolis of mummies in the world.

How did they come about?

In Italy, on the island of Sicily, the Catacombs of the Capuchins are located under the Palermo Capuchin Monastery (Convento dei Cappuccini). Due to the fact that in the late 16th century the number of monks and novices living in the monastery increased significantly, the question arose of where to bury the remains of the deceased brothers. It was decided to organize a burial in the crypt under the monastery church. The first to be buried here was Sylvestro's brother from Gubbio in 1599, and later the bodies of several monks who had died earlier were reburied. Gradually, crypts did not remain in the room, and the Capuchin dug a long corridor in which the burial of the deceased monks was carried out until 1871.

Rich and wealthy monastery philanthropists eventually expressed a desire that after the death of their bodies were placed in the Catacombs of the Capuchins in Palermo. For burial of secular persons, additional cubes and corridors were dug. Burial in the Palermo Catacombs in the XVIII-XIX centuries became prestigious. Representatives of the aristocratic and wealthy families of Palermo sought permission to burial to the abbot of the monastery.

Recent burials

In 1882, all burials in the Catacombs of the Capuchins were officially terminated, where by that time there were already about 8,000 inhabitants of Palermo, monks and clergy. After this date, only a few deceased were placed in the Catacombs for exceptional and special petitions, including Giovanni Paterniti and Rosalie Lombardo. Today it is their imperishable remains that are the main attraction of this underground necropolis.

Features of catacombs

Monks already in XVII century have fixed, that, thanks to atmosphere and soil Catacombs, bodies practically are not subject to decay. From that time, a special method was used to prepare the remains of the deceased for placement in the Catacombs of the Capuchins: for eight months they were dried in special chamber rooms under the ground. Then the mummified bodies were washed with vinegar and dressed in clothes provided by relatives. After this, the mummies were hung, seated and exposed in open form in the cubes and corridors, and some bodies were laid in coffins.

In times of epidemics, the bodies were kept somewhat different: the corpses were immersed in solutions of arsenic or lime and then exposed in galleries and halls.

Structure of catacombs

The huge underground necropolis for the possibility of navigating in it was divided into categories:

• Priests;
• Monks;
• Men;
• women;
• Virgins;
• Married couples;
• children;
• Profession.

Below you can see the scheme of the Catacombs. The oldest part of them is the corridor of monks, where burials were conducted from 1599 to 1871. In his right, closed to the public part, there are mummies of 40 persons associated with religion and the most revered priests and monks.

In the corridor of men lay the bodies of laity from the number of monastic donors and philanthropists. At the intersection of the galleries of priests and men is a cube - a children's room. In the center of this small room there is a mummy of a boy in a rocking chair holding a younger sister in his arms, and in the niches around there are a few dozens of children's bodies.

Until 1943, the women's gallery was covered with wooden bars, and all the mummies were protected by glass. After the bombing of 1943, one lattice and glass were destroyed, and the remains were severely damaged. Today, most of the mummies are in horizontal niches, and several well-preserved bodies are exposed vertically.

In parallel to the corridor of men is a gallery of professionals, where the bodies of lawyers and professors, sculptors and artists, doctors and professional soldiers are located. One of the legends of Palermo states that the body of the famous Spanish painter Diego Velasquez was placed in the Catacombe of the Capuchins, namely the corridor of professionals . However, neither confirmation nor refutation has yet been found.

At the intersection of the galleries of professionals and women is a small room, which houses the bodies of virgins and unmarried women. About a dozen bodies are laid and installed next to the wooden cross, their heads are crowned with wreaths of metal as a sign of virgin purity.

The new corridor is the youngest part of the Catacomb, in which, in 1837, after the ban was put on display the remains of the deceased, they established coffins with the deceased. As a result of the bombardment in 1943 and the fire in 1996, most of the coffins were destroyed, and the rest were later installed along the walls. In addition, in the New Corridor there are mummies of several family groups, where the bodies of the father, mother and several children of adolescence are collected.

The Chapel of Saint Rosalia

The Catacombs of Capuchin Rosalia Lombardo, a two-year-old girl, died of pneumonia in 1920, became famous. Her body is in the center of the chapel of Saint Rosalia, which until 1866 was dedicated to the Sorrowful Theotokos, in a coffin made of glass. A feature of Rosalia, and believers call it a miracle, is that her body has remained imperishable: eyeballs, hair, eyelashes, soft facial tissues. Her embalming was conducted by Dr. Alfredo Salafii, a secret which American scientists were able to discover recently. After the burial of the body of Rosalia in the Catacombs of the Capuchins, no one was buried here.