Catacombe dei Cappuccini, Palermo
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Death was almost fashionable in the nineteenth century. Grand funerary monuments sprang up in cemeteries across Europe and the Americas, but the practice of mummifying one’s body was the most de rigueur of life-after-death rituals.
The noblesse oblige of Palermo have always been followers of fashion, and having one’s corpse displayed in the city’s Catacombe dei Cappuccini (Capuchin Catacombs) was as modish in the 1800s as sporting Gucci is today. The result is one of the Sicilian capital’s most macabre sights. Built in 1533, the catacombs of the Convento dei Cappuccini were host to their first mummified cadaver in 1599 — one of the monastery’s own, a priest called Fra’ Silvestro da Gubbio. Now some 8,000 dusty bodies clad in their now-fraying finery are laid out row upon row.
Although there is a saying that death is an equalizer, you won’t think so as you wander the cool maze of corridors housing the mummies. The bodies are organized according to sex, profession, age and class: the Italians were as conscious of the prestige of being a priest or dottore then as they are now. Many of the mummies are skeletal husks with mouths gaping, their former foppery and status only evident in fading frock coats, drooping top hats and brown remnants of lace. However, some still have tufts of hair and papery skin adorning their tiny frames.
Internments ceased in 1881 because of the toxicity of the embalming process. Yet the star attraction in this chamber of horrors is more recent. A grief-stricken widower had his daughter embalmed in 1920 using more modern methods that remain a mystery. Some say the well-preserved body of the two-year-old Rosalia Lombardo, known as the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ looks as if she is sleeping, and it was skill sufficient to keep her surviving sister make frequent visits to gaze at her until she herself died recently.
The body of Giuseppe Tommasi di Lampedusa, author of the novel The Leopard, is buried in the cemetery next to the catacombs.
Opening times: 9 am to12 noon and 3 pm to 5 pm. Tickets cost €1.50.
Contact tel: +39 091 212 117
Cost adult ticket: £1 - £5 pp
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