The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo (also Catacombe dei Cappuccini or Catacombs of the Capuchins) are burial

catacomb Catacombs are man-made underground passages primarily used for religious purposes, particularly for burial. Any chamber used as a burial place is considered a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire. Etym ...

s in

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, southern

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. Today they provide a somewhat

macabre In works of art, the adjective macabre ( or ; ) means "having the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols of death. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in natu ...

tourist attraction as well as an extraordinary historical record.

Historical background

Palermo's Capuchin

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

outgrew its original

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

in the 16th century and monks began to excavate

crypt A crypt (from Greek κρύπτη (kryptē) ''wikt:crypta#Latin, crypta'' "Burial vault (tomb), vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, Sarcophagus, sarcophagi, or Relic, religiou ...

s below it. In 1599 they mummified one of their number, the recently deceased brother Silvestro of Gubbio, and placed him in the catacombs. Bodies were dehydrated on racks of ceramic pipes in the catacombs and sometimes later washed with

vinegar Vinegar () is an aqueous solution of diluted acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains from 5% to 18% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting ...

. Some bodies were

embalmed Embalming is the art and science of preserving human remains by treating them with embalming chemicals in modern times to forestall decomposition. This is usually done to make the deceased suitable for viewing as part of the funeral ceremony or ...

and others were enclosed in sealed glass cabinets. Friars were preserved with their everyday clothing and sometimes with ropes they had worn in

penance Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of contrition for sins committed, as well as an alternative name for the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. The word ''penance'' derive ...

. Initially the catacombs were intended only for deceased friars. However, in later centuries it became a status symbol to be entombed in the Capuchin catacombs. In their wills, local luminaries would ask to be preserved in certain clothes, or even have their clothes changed at regular intervals. Priests wore their clerical vestments, while others were clothed according to contemporary fashion. Relatives would visit to pray for the deceased and to maintain the body in presentable condition. The catacombs were maintained through donations from the relatives of the deceased. Each new body was placed in a temporary niche and later placed into a more permanent location. So long as contributions continued, the body remained in its proper place but if relatives stopped sending money, the body was put aside on a shelf until they resumed payments.

Interments

In 1871 Brother Riccardo was the last friar interred in the catacombs, but other famous people were interred after that. The catacombs were officially closed in 1880 but tourists continued to visit. The last burials are from the 1920s and 1930s. Among the final interments was Rosalia Lombardo, then nearly two years old, whose body remains remarkably intact, preserved with a procedure performed by Professor Alfredo Salafia. His process included

formalin Formaldehyde ( , ) (systematic name methanal) is an organic compound with the chemical formula and structure , more precisely . The compound is a pungent, colourless gas that polymerises spontaneously into paraformaldehyde. It is stored as ...

to kill bacteria, alcohol to dry the body,

glycerin Glycerol () is a simple triol compound. It is a colorless, odorless, sweet-tasting, viscous liquid. The glycerol backbone is found in lipids known as glycerides. It is also widely used as a sweetener in the food industry and as a humectant in pha ...

to keep it from over drying,

salicylic acid Salicylic acid is an organic compound with the formula HOC6H4COOH. A colorless (or white), bitter-tasting solid, it is a precursor to and a active metabolite, metabolite of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin). It is a plant hormone, and has been lis ...

to kill fungi, and the most important ingredients, zinc salts (

zinc sulfate Zinc sulfate is an inorganic compound with the formula ZnSO4. It forms hydrates ZnSO4·''n''H2O, where ''n'' can range from 0 to 7. All are colorless solids. The most common form includes water of crystallization as the heptahydrate, with the che ...

and

zinc chloride Zinc chloride is an Inorganic chemistry, inorganic chemical compound with the chemical formula, formula ZnCl2·''n''H2O, with ''n'' ranging from 0 to 4.5, forming water of hydration, hydrates. Zinc chloride, anhydrous and its hydrates, are colo ...

) to give the body rigidity. The formula is one part glycerin, one part formalin saturated with both zinc salts, and one part of an alcohol solution saturated with

. The final burial was that of Giovanni Licata di Baucina, the count of

Isnello Isnello ( Sicilian: ''Isneḍḍu'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in the Italian region of Sicily, located about southeast of Palermo. Isnello borders the following municipalities: Castelbuono, Cefalù, Col ...

, in 1939. The catacombs contain about 8,000 corpses and 1,252 mummies (as stated by last census made by EURAC in 2011) that line the walls. The halls are divided by category: men, women, virgins, children, priests, monks, and professionals. Some bodies are better preserved than others. Some are set in poses; for example, two children are sitting together in a rocking chair. The coffins were accessible to the families of the deceased so that on certain days the family, including the deceased, could join their hands in prayer. Famous people buried in the catacombs include: * Filippo d'Austria, formerly Ayala, prince of

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

and convert to Catholicism (1620) * Giuseppe Grimau, president of the kingdom (1755) *

Vincenzo Natoli Vincenzo Natoli was a Sicilian judge. He was made a marquess in 1756 by Charles III, the king of the Two Sicilies. Life Natoli was born in 1690 at Sant'Angelo di Brolo. From 1730 to 1734, and again in 1740, he was a judge of the Gran Corte C ...

, judge (1770)''Catacombe dei Cappuccini'',Izi Travel. https://izi.travel/en/acd4-catacombe-dei-cappuccini/it#7f98-introduzione/it * Lorenzo Marabitti, sculptor (early 19th c.) * Filippo Pennino, sculptor (1801) * Giuseppe Velasco, painter (1827) * Salvatore Manzella, surgeon (1835) * Alexandre Michaud de Beauretour,

Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...

general and military advisor (1841, floor tomb) * Giulio Ascanio Enea, colonel and war committee member (1848) * Giovanni Corrao, partisan (1863) * Paolo Ragona, colonel of artillery (1863) * Bishop Agostino Franco (1877), titular Bishop of

Hermopolis Hermopolis (or ''Hermopolis Magna'') was a major city in antiquity, located near the boundary between Lower and Upper Egypt. Its Egyptian name ''Khemenu'' derives from the eight deities (the Ogdoad) said to reside in the city. A provincial capi ...

* Marino Concettina, 5-years-old kid and also known as the another Sleeping Beauty. (1880) * Giovanni Paterniti, vice-consul of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

(1911) * Ernesto Salafia,

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

master (1914) * Salvatore Auteri, opera composer (1924, tomb)

Scientific research

The Sicily Mummy Project was created in 2007 to study the mummies and to create profiles on those who were mummified. The project is led by

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

Dario Piombino-Mascali of the Department of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity in

, and is backed by the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano The mummies are

X-Rayed An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

and

CT scan A computed tomography scan (CT scan), formerly called computed axial tomography scan (CAT scan), is a medical imaging technique used to obtain detailed internal images of the body. The personnel that perform CT scans are called radiographers or ...

ned to collect information about them, along with other anthropological and paleopathological techniques to confirm their age and gender. Piombino-Mascali credits the program with re-opening discussion about death in Sicily; Forensic biologist

Mark Benecke Mark Benecke (born 26 August 1970) is a German forensic biologist. Career Science Benecke has worked on the identification of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun's dental remains in Moscow (as well as a skull fragment claimed to be Hitler's). Notab ...

identified several insects that shed light on the mummification process. Recent scientific research has focused on the identities of the children in the Capuchin Catacombs.

Tourism

The catacombs are open to the public. Photography inside is officially prohibited, which prominent signs make clear to visitors. However, some bodies have been shown on film in Francesco Rosi's ''Cadaveri Eccellenti'' ("Illustrious Corpses"), and television programmes such as the Channel 4 series ''

Coach Trip ''Coach Trip'' is a British reality game show that began airing on Channel 4 on 7 March 2005. The show's premise sees four to seven pairs of tourists undertaking a coach tour principally of continental Europe between twenty and fifty days, whil ...

'',

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series '' The Human Body'' in 1998, '' Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe'', '' Ghosthunting With Paul O'Grady and Friends'' on

ITV2 ITV2 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the fiv ...

in 2008 and

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in 2000. Iron grilles have been installed to prevent tourists tampering or posing with the corpses.

Gallery

Image:New Corridor.jpg, New Corridor Image:Monks' Corridor.jpg, Monks' Corridor Image:Women's Corridor.jpg, Women's Corridor File:Professionalists' Corridor.jpg, Professionals' Corridor File:Men' Corridor.jpg, Men's Corridor File:Catacombe dei Cappuccini Cappella Bambini.jpg, Children File:Professionalists' Corridor-3.jpg, Cols. Giulio Enea (1848, bottom) and Paolo Ragona (1863, top) File:Paterniti's body.jpg, Giovanni Paterniti (1911) File:Rosalia im Mai.JPG, Rosalia Lombardo, as she appeared in 2012

References