In the Sicilian city of Palermo, the Catacombs of Capuchins (Catacombe dei Cappuccini) are located - underground burials where the remains of more than 8,000 people are buried. The peculiarity of these catacombs is that the embalmed, mummified and skeletonized bodies of the deceased stand open, lie and hang, forming rather scary compositions. It is the largest necropolis of mummies in the world.
How did they come about?
In Italy, on the island of Sicily, the Capuchin Catacombs are located under the Palermo Capuchin Monastery (Convento dei Cappuccini). Due to the fact that at the end of the XVI 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 brother Silvestro of Gubbio in 1599, and later the bodies of several monks who had died earlier were reburied here. Gradually, there was no free space in the crypt room, and the Capuchins dug up a long corridor in which the buried monks were buried until 1871.
The wealthy and wealthy monastic benefactors began to express a desire over time that after death their bodies would be placed in the Catacombs of the Capuchins in Palermo. For the burial of secular persons dug additional cubes and corridors. Burial in the Palermo Catacombs in the XVIII-XIX centuries became prestigious. Representatives of the aristocratic and wealthy families of Palermo applied for permission for burial to the abbot of the monastery.
The last burial
In 1882, all Capuchin burials in the Catacombs were officially stopped, where by then approximately 8,000 Palermo residents, monks, and clergymen had already been buried. After this date, only a few deceased were placed in the Catacombs on exceptional and special requests, including Giovanni Paternity and Rosalia Lombardo. Today it is their imperishable remains that are the main attraction of this underground necropolis.
Catacomb Features
The monks already in the XVII century recorded that, thanks to the atmosphere and soil of the Catacombs, the bodies are practically not subject to decomposition. Since that time, a special method has been used to prepare the remains of the dead for placement of capuchins in the Catacombs: for eight months they were dried in special chamber rooms underground. Then, the resulting mummified bodies were washed with vinegar and dressed in clothing provided by relatives. After that, the mummies were hung, seated and exposed in open form in cubes and corridors, and some bodies were laid in coffins.
At the time of epidemics, the bodies were preserved in a slightly different way: corpses were immersed in solutions of arsenic or lime and after that they were exhibited in galleries and halls.
Catacomb structure
The huge underground necropolis for being able to navigate it was divided into categories:
- priests;
- monks;
- men
- women;
- virgins;
- married couples;
- children;
- profession.
Below you can see the Catacomb diagram.
The oldest part is the corridor of the monks, where burials were carried out from 1599 to 1871. In its right part, which is closed to visitors, there are mummies of 40 persons associated with religion and the most revered priests and monks.
In the corridor of men were placed the bodies of lay people from among the monastery donors and benefactors. At the intersection of the galleries of priests and men is a cubic - a room for children. In the center of this small hall is the mummy of a boy in a rocking chair holding a younger sister in his arms, and in the niches around there are several dozens of children's bodies.
Until 1943, the gallery of women was closed with wooden bars, and all mummies were protected by glass. After the bombing of 1943, one grille and glass were destroyed, and the remains are quite badly damaged. Today, most of the mummies are in horizontal niches, and several well-preserved bodies are displayed vertically.
Parallel to the corridor of men is a gallery of professionals, where the bodies of lawyers and professors, sculptors and artists, doctors and professional military personnel are located. One of Palermo’s legends says that in the Catacombs of the Capuchins, namely in the corridor of professionals, the body of the famous Spanish painter Diego Velazquez was placed . However, no evidence or rebuttal has yet been found.
At the intersection of the galleries of professionals and women, there is a small hall in which the bodies of virgins and unmarried women are placed. About a dozen bodies were laid and installed next to a wooden cross, their heads crowned with metal crowns in a sign of virgin purity.
The new corridor is the youngest part of the Catacombs, in which, in 1837, after a ban was placed on displaying the remains of the dead, coffins were installed with the deceased. As a result of the bombing in 1943 and the fire in 1996, the bulk of the coffins were destroyed, and the rest were subsequently 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 teenage children are collected.
Chapel of Saint Rosalia
Glorified the Catacombs of Capuchins Rosalia Lombardo, a two-year-old girl who died of pneumonia in 1920. Her body is in the center of the chapel of St. Rosalia, which until 1866 was dedicated to the Grieving Virgin, in a glass coffin. A feature of Rosalia, and believers call it a miracle, is that her body was preserved imperishable: eyeballs, hair, eyelashes, soft tissues of the face. Her embalming was performed by Dr. Alfredo Salafi, whose secret the 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.