Capuchin Crypt (Palermo)

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Photography by Giuseppe Incorpora (1834–1914)

The Capuchin Crypt of Palermo ( Le Catacombe dei Cappuccini in Italian ) is an extensive crypt under the Capuchin monastery in Palermo and with its natural mummies one of the most famous tombs in the world. The mummies are presented with the aim of reminding visitors of their own impermanence .

Emergence

View from the entrance area through part of the cloister to the chapel of St. Rosalia

In 1534 the Capuchins , a recently founded reform branch of the Franciscans , built their first monastery on Sicilian soil outside the gates of the city of Palermo. In 1599 it was decided to dig a larger vault below the high altar because there was no longer enough space for the growing number of brothers. When the friars went down to move the 40 corpses from the old to the new crypt, they discovered that some of the corpses showed little signs of decay. The abbot arranged for them to be set up on the walls as memento mori . The oldest surviving corpse is that of brother Silvestro da Gubbio († 1599).

Until 1670, the new Capuchin crypt was primarily used as a burial place for the Capuchins. Over time, however, the population's desire for a burial in the crypt of the monastery increased more and more. In particular, members of the Palermitan upper class wanted to be buried there. The convent could not ignore this demand in the long run, especially since many benefactors of the monastery were among them. Permission for burial in the crypt was granted by the general chapter and the superiors of the Capuchins until 1739, then the priors of the monastery.

The desire of the better circles of Palermo for a funeral with the Capuchins continued unabated for more than two centuries. It was not until 1837 that the government banned this type of burial. Burials continued until 1881, but the bodies had to be buried in coffins. The crypt has remained unchanged since then. A total of around 2063 mummies are currently still in the catacombs, some in coffins.

Structure of the crypt

There are a total of five corridors: one for men, one for women, a corridor for the “Professionisti” (doctors, lawyers, teachers, artists, politicians and officers of the Bourbon and Italian armies), one for priests and a corridor for the Capuchins two niches (one each for virgins and one for children), the chapel of St. Rosalia and other rooms. One of them is one of the opened “Colatoi”, in which there are still two dried mummies.

In the chapel of St. Until 1866, Rosalia was a wooden sculpture of Our Lady of Sorrows , created by the Capuchin Br. Benedetto Valenza in the second half of the 18th century. The statue was then moved to the entrance to the catacombs, where it is still today.

Many coffins of the women's gang fell victim to a bomb attack on Palermo on March 11, 1943, in which the crypt was hit. Even in a fire in 1966, other coffins were damaged or destroyed in this area.

Well-known dead

Rosalia Lombardo

Among the buried are some well-known personalities, such as the writers Alessio Narbone and Don Vincenzo Agati († April 3, 1731 in Palermo), as well as Ayala, the son of a Tunisian king. He later converted to Catholicism and took the name Filippo d'Austria († September 20, 1622). The sculptors Filippo Pennino and Lorenzo Marabitti as well as the medic Salvatore Manzella are also buried in the crypt. In the so-called “priestly corridor” is the body of Mons. Franco D'Agostino , a bishop of the Byzantine rite in regalia .

Among the deceased in the Chapel of St. Rosalia is the incomparably preserved corpse of almost two-year-old Rosalia Lombardo , who died of the Spanish flu on December 6, 1920 . In 2009 a document was discovered that described the mixture of glycerine , formalin , zinc sulfate and other ingredients used by Alfredo Salafia , who was commissioned with the mummification .

photos

  • Men's corridor

  • Corridor of the women

  • Corridor of the Professionisti

  • Corridor of the priests

  • Priest in May 2012

  • Corridor of the Capuchins

  • Coffin of Rosalia Lombardos in March 2011

  • New glass coffin Rosalia Lombardos in May 2012

reception

The catacombs have been described variously, Ippolito Pindemonte processed them literarily with his poem I Sepolcri . He visited the crypt on November 2nd, 1777. The street between Corso Calatafimi and the Capuchin monastery to which the crypt belongs was named after him via Ippolito Pindemonte .

The Italian-French thriller Power and its Price (1976) begins in the catacombs.

literature

  • Andreas Ströbl: The "Catacombe dei Cappuccini" in Palermo. In: cemetery and memorial. Journal for Sepulchral Culture. Vol. 52, No. 2, 2007, ZDB -ID 528969-5 , pp. 3-16.
  • Dario Piombino-Mascali: Palermo's Underworld: Mummies in the Capuchin Crypt . In: Archeology in Germany . Issue 5, 2012, pp. 62–63.
  • Kristina Baumjohann, Mark Benecke (2019) Insect Traces and the Mummies of Palermo - a Status Report. Entomology Today 31: 73-93 ( report as .pdf )

Web links

Commons : Capuchin Crypt (Palermo)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mummy researcher: "This is a cemetery, not a horror show" in: WESTDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG from August 11, 2012
  2. ↑ Angelika Franz: Embalming: Researchers solve the riddle of the flawless mummy . On: spiegel.de (spiegel-online → Wissenschaft) from May 11, 2009.
  3. ↑ Dario Piombino-Mascali, Arthur C. Aufderheide, Melissa Johnson-Williams, Albert R. Zink: The Salafia method rediscovered . In: Virchow's archive . Vol. 454, No. 3, March 2009, pp. 355-357. doi : 10.1007 / s00428-009-0738-6 . PMID 19205728 .

Coordinates: 38 ° 6 ′ 43.4 "  N , 13 ° 20 ′ 25.8"  E