Italian City of the Dead: Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

In the Sicilian city of Palermo, the Capuchin Catacombs (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, lie and hang in the open, forming rather terrible compositions. This is the largest mummy necropolis in the world.

How did they come about?

In Italy, on the island of Sicily, the Capuchin Catacombs are located under the Capuchin Monastery of Palermo (Convento dei Cappuccini). Due to the fact that at the end of the 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 a crypt under the monastery church. Brother Silvestro of Gubbio was the first to be buried here in 1599, and subsequently the bodies of several monks who had died earlier were reburied here. Gradually indoorsthere was no free space left in the crypt, and the Capuchins dug a long corridor in which the burials of the dead monks were held until 1871.

Rich and we althy monastic benefactors eventually began to express the desire that after death their bodies be placed in the Catacombs of the Capuchins in Palermo. For the burial of secular persons, additional cubicles and corridors were dug. Burial in the Palermo Catacombs in the XVIII-XIX centuries became prestigious. Representatives of the aristocratic and we althy families of Palermo applied for permission for burial to the abbot of the monastery.

Last burials

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

Features of the catacombs

Monks already in the 17th century recorded that, thanks to the atmosphere and soil of the Catacombs, the bodies are practically not subject to decomposition. From that time on, a special method was used to prepare the remains of the dead for placement in the Catacombs of the Capuchins: for eight months they were dried in special chambers underground. Then the resulting mummified bodies were washed with vinegar and dressed in clothes provided by relatives. After thatmummies were hung, seated and displayed openly in cubicles and corridors, and some bodies were placed in coffins.

During epidemics, the bodies were preserved a little differently: the corpses were immersed in solutions of arsenic or lime and then exhibited in galleries and halls.

Structure of the catacombs

The huge underground necropolis was divided into categories to be able to navigate in it:

• priests;
• monks;
• men;
• women;
• virgins;
• married couples;
• children;
• professions.

Below you can see the diagram of the Catacombs.

The oldest part of them is the corridor of monks, where burials were held from 1599 to 1871. In its right part, closed to the public, are the mummies of 40 persons associated with religion and the most revered priests and monks.

In the men's corridor were placed the bodies of the laity from among the monastic donors and benefactors. At the intersection of the galleries of priests and men, there is a cubicle - a children's room. In the center of this small hall is the mummy of a boy in a rocking chair, holding his younger sister in his arms, and in the niches around there are several dozen more children's bodies.

Until 1943, the women's gallery was covered with wooden bars, and all the mummies were protected by glass. After the bombings of 1943, one of the bars and windows were destroyed, and the remains were rather badly damaged. Today, most of the mummies are in horizontal niches, and a few well-preserved bodies are on display.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 soldiers are located. One of the legends of Palermo says that the body of the famous Spanish painter Diego Velazquez was placed in the Catacombs of the Capuchins, namely in the corridor of professionals. However, neither confirmation nor refutation 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 are laid and set next to a wooden cross, their heads are crowned with metal crowns as a sign of virgin purity.

The New Corridor is the youngest part of the Catacombs, in which in 1837, after a ban was introduced on displaying the remains of the dead, coffins with the dead were installed. As a result of the bombing in 1943 and the fire in 1996, most of the coffins were destroyed, and the rest were subsequently installed along the walls. In addition, the mummies of several family groups are located in the New Corridor, where the bodies of a father, mother and several teenage children are collected.

St. Rosalia's Chapel

The Catacombs of the Capuchins were made famous by 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 Sorrowful Virgin, in a glass coffin. A feature of Rosalia, and believers call ita miracle is that her body was preserved incorruptible: eyeballs, hair, eyelashes, soft tissues of the face. Her embalming was carried out by Dr. Alfredo Salafii, the secret of which American scientists were able to discover recently. After the burial of Rosalia's body in the Catacombs of the Capuchins, no one else was buried here.