The mummies of Capuchin Catacombs

One of the most mysterious and interesting places to visit when you go to Sicily, are the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo. Here are preserved and displayed many mummified bodies, a truly impressive exhibition, thanks to them we can understand what were the customs and traditions of Palermo between the centuries XVII and XIX.

History of Capuchin Catacombs

The Capuchin Catacombs are located in the underground of the Capuchin Monastery, to which is annexed Santa Maria della Pace Church, and are located in Piazza Cappuccini, 1, Palermo. The Catacombs were created as a burial place for the monks of the monastery. Before these Capuchins had a mass grave that was filled soon and so in 1597 they began the construction of the Catacombs.

When two years later they concluded them, they took the bodies of their brethren who were buried in the mass grave to move them to the new burial place, but they discovered that well forty bodies were mummified naturally. This was interpreted by the monks as a heavenly sign and so they decided to expose the bodies in recesses, in an upright position, put on the walls of the catacombs in the first corridor. The first mummy to be hosted in those places was that of Fra Silvestro da Gubbio, his corpse is still exposed.

All this led particular fame to the Capuchin Monastery, and so in 1783, burial was allowed to all those who could afford to pay the costs of embalming. So the cemetery that once should only belong to the Friars, it became a kind of macabre museum and hallways were expanded.

Between ‘600 and 800 thousand people entrusted to the Friars their bodies and those of their families, of course after a substantial donation, and could make use of the natural mummification process that the friars had perfected over the years; once mummified they were also exposed in the cemetery. So the family could still go to find their beloved ones and watch them as if they were still part of the living world.

The catacombs were closed in 1880.

There were only two exceptions at the beginning of ‘900, in fact, two other corpses were hosted. In 1911 Giovanni Paterniti, who in life was vice-consul of the United States.

And then one of the most famous and well-preserved mummies, that one of the little girl who died of pneumonia just at the age of two, Rosalia Lombardo. So far she has nicknames such as “most beautiful mummy in the world” and “Sleeping Beauty”.