Creepy corpse museum

The Capuchin catacombs of Palermo, Italy lies one of the creepiest tourist attraction. This is not something for the faint of heart. The catacomb hold thousands of mummified bodies in one of the most ghastly human showcase in the world. There are about 8000 dead bodies lined up on the wall, sitting down, lying in coffins and on shelves. The halls are divided into categories: Men, Women, Virgins, Children, Priests, Monks, and Professionals. Some bodies are better preserved than others. Some are set in poses, one of them are two children are sitting together in a rocking chair.

Some of the corpses lost their flesh a long time ago and are nothing but skeletons. Others have mummified flesh, hair and even eyes. Almost all the bodies are wearing the clothes they died in. Several of the mummies look like they are screaming. Time and gravity have caused the body to look this way. Body parts, like hands, jaws, parts of the skull have fallen off some of the corpses over time. It all began in 1599 when local priests mummified a monk so they could pray to him after death. Locals wanted to remember their loved ones the same way, and soon there were hundreds of corpses.

One of the last corpses to make it to the catacomb before authorities stopped the practice was seven year-old Rosalia Lombardo. She died in about 1920 and is nicknamed "Sleeping Beauty" because she looks like a large sleeping doll. Remarkably the body remains in perfect condition for eternity in the catacombs. Dr. Salofia was the only one who knew the method used to preserve Rosalia and he took the secret of the chemical brew with him to the grave.

However, this is not the only corpse museum in Italy. 650 miles away in Rome, the Capuchin Crypt, located beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, it is the final resting place for over 4,000 Capuchin monks, who died between 1528 and 1870. The soil in the crypt was brought from Jerusalem. There are six total rooms in the crypt, each featuring a unique display of human bones.

Large numbers of the bones are nailed to the walls in intricate patterns, many are piled high among countless others, some hang from the ceiling as working light fixtures. A painting of St. Francis by Caravaggio is upstairs. The final room of the quiet journey through the crypt contains these words from beyond: "What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be."

Source : www.cappucciniviaveneto.it

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