In addition to palaces and museums, there is one attraction in Palermo that is not recommended for the faint of heart and impressionable. The twilight and special atmosphere in this place only add to the sensations. We are talking about the famous Capuchin Catacombs, a kind of City-Museum of the Dead under the Capuchin monastery in the suburbs of Palermo (Italy).

A bit of history

The first Capuchins appeared in Sicily in 1534 and settled near Palermo, west of the city. They were given possession a small church of the Norman era - the chapel of Santa Maria della Pace.

Next to it, the monks eventually built a monastery and a chapel, with most of the finances for the construction coming from the townspeople, as donations. In 1565 it was decided to reconstruct the church, completely changing its outlines and structure. Repair work for a number of reasons stretched over several decades.

With the growth of the monastery and the numerical increase in the brotherhood, the monks faced the question of a worthy place for the burial of the dead brothers. The first burials appeared here in 1599, namely, in the monastery crypt. The bodies of monks who had died a year or two before were also transferred here. Gradually, the free space became less and less, and the monks were forced to expand the burial premises, tearing out a number of tunnels and corridors.

The church of Santa Maria della Pace acquires its current appearance in 1934, when the church premises were reconstructed. Church interiors and works of art of the 16th-18th centuries have been preserved in the interiors of the church.

Description and photo

Funeral catacombs are a crypt with a burial place of more than 8 thousand people- many corridors along which they stand, lie, sit numerous mummified bodies of long-dead people. Some mummies are buried in coffins ranging from simple to exquisite, some in wall niches.

The location of the burials has its own peculiarity - not everyone was buried here, each of the dead had its own separate corridor.

Two corridors, the longest and parallel to each other, are corridor of men and corridor of professionals. In the latter, "people of art" were buried - poets, artists, sculptors, architects. There is even a legend according to which Diego Velasquez himself, the famous Spanish painter, is buried in this corridor.

The corridor of men is also impressive in size. Buried here first influential nobles and representatives of the clergy, and then noble and wealthy citizens (especially those who donated considerable sums to the parish). Until 1739, permission for burials in the crypt was issued only by archbishops or leaders of the Capuchin order. Being buried in an underground crypt was considered very prestigious among the townspeople.

Perpendicular to these corridors are corridor of women, corridor of monks, corridor of virgins, corridor of children and babies. The corridor of women was the only one that was bombed in 1943. Many mummies were completely destroyed, and those that remained were placed in niches and on shelves. Moreover, almost destroyed faces and bright, well-preserved clothes from different eras contrast sharply ...

Separately, there is a corridor of priests, where tourists are not always allowed. There are also closed rooms where the highest church ranks are buried.

The peculiarity of the atmosphere in the catacombs is such that it prevents the decomposition of bodies. All the mummies, thanks to the special temperature of the crypt, were preserved quite well.: some are completely preserved, you can even see in detail the outfit of the era to which the mummy belonged - from the dress of an ordinary city dweller to the luxurious outfit of a noble nobleman.

And there were some minor mishaps about the clothes. Eminent citizens who bequeathed to bury themselves in the crypt gave the Capuchin monks special instructions on how many times a year their outfits should be changed ...

In this video you can see the mummies of the Museum of the Dead - Capuchin catacombs in Palermo (beware, this is not for the faint of heart!):

Read about other less scary ones in a separate article. And you will find the entire list of famous places on the island of Sicily.

Secrets of Little Rosalia Lombardo

The crypt has another secret, one secret for which tourists visit this place.

In the chapel of Saint Rosalia there is a small coffin, and in it rests the body of a two-year-old resident of Palermo - Rosalia Lombardo, who was buried here in 1920. She died of pneumonia, and suddenly, and the inconsolable father could not understand that his beloved daughter had died.

The baby's father turned to the well-known embalmer Alfred Salafia at that time with a request to keep the baby's body incorrupt. After persuasion, Alfred agreed and carried out the will of Signor Lombardo.

Alfredo Salafia never revealed the secret of his magical composition to anyone, so it remains a mystery how the girl's body has not undergone any changes for many decades- not only soft tissues, but also eyeballs, hair and eyelashes remained unharmed.

It seems to tourists who come to the chapel that the baby simply fell asleep, and the inhabitants of Palermo themselves call Rosalia Lombardo "our Sleeping Beauty" ...

It has been suggested that the baby is in a lethargic dream, or that she is a doll in general. But the results of an x-ray study conducted by a group of scientists in 2009 confirmed that this is a real deceased child whose body has not undergone any changes.

However, even after the study, another problem was thrown to the scientists: an impartial technique recorded two weak electromagnetic impulses of the child's brain, as if Rosalia was in a state of sleep.

Chapel attendants claim that sometimes a faint lavender scent emanates from the girl's body. Scientists are still unable to explain this phenomenon, but deeply religious people consider Rosalia a "messenger of God".

For more information about the Sleeping Beauty mummy Rosalind Lombardo, see the video:

Learn more about - another vibrant place in Sicily. And about the city of Cefalu on the same island and its interesting places.

Opening hours, ticket prices

Catacombs are available for viewing from 9 am to 5 pm(during the high season, the opening hours are extended to 19 hours). Lunch break is from 13:00 to 15:00.

If there was a ranking of beauty among mummies, then this beautiful little girl would take first place every year. It is impossible to believe that she has been dead for over 100 years. How alive. It seems that she will soon wake up smile and say that this is a prank and you have been played. But unfortunately, she left this world long ago.

She has her own little secret, from which people fall into a stupor, turn pale and lose consciousness. Next, we will talk about the secrets of beauty and the secrets hidden behind the angelic appearance of the most beautiful mummy in the world.

Rosalia Lombardo was only two years old when she died of pneumonia back in 1920. Her untimely death plunged her father into shock and depression. He decided to turn to the famous specialist Alfredo Salafia for help and asked him to save Rosalia's body through embalming and mummification. In order to somehow tame your pain, rub it.

Alfredo Salafia, a skilled embalmer and taxidermist of his day. He performed an incredible, beautiful and complex operation on Rosalia that even a hundred years after her death, it seems that the girl is just sleeping under glass in a wooden box. The girl's body is in the Capuchin catacombs in Palermo, Italy.

Her small cheeks still look firm and healthy plump. Locks of blond hair are neatly gathered above her head and tied with a silk bow. Apart from the beautiful appearance, if I may say so in relation to the dead, small child. Her internal organs are not damaged, which is confirmed by X-ray scanning.

Rosalia Lombardo has long earned the nickname "Sleeping Beauty", gaining a reputation as one of the best preserved mummies in the world.

Rosalia's perfectly preserved body is only part of the story. The girl's visitors swear she blinks and winks at them. In the gif, we see her eyelids opening and closing. Or does it seem so?

Some claim to have seen her eyes. Sleeping Beauty's beautiful blue eyes are also in excellent condition. They are not damaged, as is most of the body. You can see how they shine, as if alive.

Research says that temperature changes inside the crypt can cause Rosalia's eyelids to close and open, producing a blinking effect. But the curator of the Capuchin catacombs, Dario Piombino-Mascali, puts forward a different theory. Piombino-Mascali believes that Rosalia's eye winks are an optical illusion. Caused by the angle of the light coming from the windows onto her face. As the day goes by and the angle of the light changes, the girl seems to open and close her eyes several times.

Piombino-Mascali made the discovery in 2009 when he noticed that workers at the museum had moved her coffin, causing her body to move slightly, allowing him to see her eyelids better than ever before. Piombino-Mascali realized that Rosalia's eyes had never been completely closed.
Another big discovery was the secret formula that Alfredo Salafia used to embalm Rosalia's body. What further supported it in an impeccable condition.

In 2009, Piombino-Mascali found living relatives of Alfredo Salafia. After talking with them, they agreed to hand over the documents belonging to Salafia, where he wrote down his secret procedure and the formulas of the substances used.

Unlike typical embalming, when internal organs are removed and empty cavities filled with solutions completely dry the body, Dr. Salafiya made a small puncture in the body and injected a mixture of formalin, zinc salts, alcohol, salicylic acid and glycerin. Each ingredient in the mixture did its own unique and delicate job.

Formalin killed all bacteria, glycerin ensured that the body did not lose moisture, salicylic acid destroyed fungi and mold. The magical ingredient was zinc salts, which froze Rosalia's body in its pristine state. They gave rigidity and elasticity to the skin and muscles, preventing the cheeks and nasal cavities from collapsing.

The Sleeping Beauty is one of the eight thousand mummies in the Capuchin catacombs in Sicily. It was one of the last corpses that was accepted into the catacombs.

Rosalia's x-ray shows that her brain and liver are intact. The grid in the picture is the coffin under the body.

Probably the most famous mummy in the whole world is Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. And the most beautiful and young Rosalia Lombardo.

Rosalia Lombardo was born on December 13, 1918, in the Italian city of Palermo, Sicily region (Palermo, Sicily, Italy). The baby caught pneumonia, and her life ended on December 6, 1920, shortly before the age of two.

Heartbroken father Lombardo painfully experienced the death of his daughter. He contacted a Sicilian chemist and embalmer named Alfredo Salafia and asked to keep Rosalia from decay.

Alfredo responded to the request of a grieving father and made an embalming solution according to his own formula. Among other chemical compounds, the mixture included formalin - for disinfection, zinc salts and salicylic acid - to give the body strength, glycerin - to prevent the mummy from complete dehydration, and alcohol - to quickly dry the body. The solution was injected under pressure through the arteries and distributed through the blood vessels.

Messina paleontologist Dario Piombino Mascali claimed at the end of the 20th century that he was able to figure out the secret of Alfredo's recipes after studying a discovered diary of a Sicilian embalming expert. Subsequently, the technique worked successfully in practice.

Rosalia became Salafiya's most famous work. Referred to by some reporters as "the most beautiful mummy in the world", the dead girl in the early years was no different from the living one. It seemed that Lombardo was just sleeping sweetly. In the mummified body, not only the soft tissues of the face remained incorruptible. The Sicilian chemist treated the baby's eyeballs, hair, eyelashes, brain and insides.

Over the next hundred years, "Sleeping Beauty" (Italian "Bella addormentata") has not changed much. And yet, in the mid-2000s, the first signs of decay began to appear. Currently, the mummy is in the chapel of Saint Rosalia in a glass coffin filled with nitrogen and insulated with lead foil. For complete tightness, the glass container is sealed with wax. The chapel itself is located in the farthest part of the Capuchin Catacombs.

Located under the Monastery in Palermo, the Capuchin Catacombs, where about 8,000 people are buried, are visited annually by thousands of tourists from all over the world. Rosalia, along with the US Vice Consul Giovanni Paterniti buried here, remain the main attractions of the catacombs to this day. The baby was the last of the buried, and the official closing of the Capuchin Catacombs took place back in 1881.

The true facts from the short life of Rosalia could not help but be "diluted with rumors", which have accumulated in abundance over the decades. In fact, there is not a single picture of a living Sicilian girl, not a single official document revealing the identities of her parents.

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Rumor has it that Rosalia was the daughter of Mario Lombardo, an Italian general. It is known that the girl was born fragile and weak. In the 24 months of her life, she experienced so much pain and struggled with so many diseases that she could last a lifetime as an adult.

At the end of the 20th century, people appeared who assured that the baby’s mummy had long since crumbled, so that visitors to the catacombs are lured simply by a wax copy of Lombardo. To refute the rumors, X-ray equipment was delivered to the chapel of Saint Rosalia. Studies have shown that not only the cellular structure was preserved, but also the internal organs of the mummy. The translucent coffin with the body of Rosalia also helped to establish that her brain remained intact, although it had decreased by 50% in volume due to mummification.

In 2009, a documentary about "the most beautiful mummy in the world" was released. Viewers were shown the girl's body outside and inside, including the hands lying on the sides. Previously, the upper limbs were hidden under the outer cover.

A few years ago, the media reported that Rosalia "opened her eyes." Her left eye seemed to open almost 5 mm, while her right eye opened 2 mm. As they say, the blue eyes of the baby were exposed under the eyelids. Some were so amazed at the terrible phenomena that they began to claim that her spirit had returned to the body of the deceased.

The mummy frightens tourists visiting the catacombs, who think that the girl's eyes are really opening. But the caretaker of the catacombs, Dario Piombino-Mascali, says that it's all about an optical illusion.

According to Dario, Rosalia's eyelids were never tightly closed. At different times of the day, the light falls on the face of the mummy at certain angles, which creates the illusion of opening and closing eyes.

Others cite fluctuating temperatures in the catacombs as the true cause of Rosalia's "open eyes".

The Capuchin catacombs are divided into a corridor of monks, men, women, professionals, priests, a new corridor, a cubicle of children and virgins. Video and photography in the catacombs are prohibited.

It is not allowed to shoot in the dungeon where the mummies are stored. Therefore, I took pictures from the network.
We rested on the island of Sicily and decided to visit the museum of the dead, the Capuchin catacombs.
A strange sight. In fact, these are just open graves.
Noble people started a fashion not to be buried in the ground. Since the 16th century, almost 8,000 mummies have been buried here.

In those days, they also noticed that there was some kind of preservative in the air of the catacombs of the monastery, in which cadaveric decay slows down.
And the clothes are very well preserved. Especially women's outfits look unnatural.
Already decayed flesh, almost a skeleton, but in a cap, with ruffles. Well, it's a very strange sight.
But like everyone else, I was simply struck by a little girl. They call her Sleeping Beauty. Rosalia Lombardo, who died during an influenza epidemic in the early 20th century. Mother went mad with grief. Her father also loved her madly and asked to be embalmed by a famous Italian doctor. The secret of embalming has almost been revealed in our time.
A formalin composition (Mostly. There were other substances, for example, glycerin) was injected into the arteries under pressure.
The baby seems to be sleeping.
I was most struck by her beautiful, BRILLIANT red hair. Even the cilia on her eyes have been preserved, and almost 90 years have passed!
Some scientists did an x-ray of the mummy, because they thought that Rosalia was in a lethargic sleep, and maybe the doll. But no, the imperishable body of the girl is completely real!
There is also a legend about a local monk who lost his mind after he saw the supposedly open eyes of a mummy girl.
more pictures of mummies

The halls are divided into burials of monks, children, women, virgins, politicians..

The clothes on the mummies are also well preserved and it is possible to see old frills, ties ..

Amazingly preserved dress

Mothers with their children

Contemporaries treat this place as a cemetery, albeit an open one. And they visit their ancestors

death smile

Shooting photos and videos is prohibited, but several channels managed to film a documentary

Sleeping Rosalia, a princess with a tattoo and other mysterious mummies from around the world

When it comes to mummies, most people immediately think of Egypt. However, people for thousands of years have found ways to preserve the bodies of their dead on all continents. And if you add to this the number of people who were "accidentally" mummified naturally after death, then suddenly it turns out that mummies can be found almost everywhere, and not just in the pyramids. Let us give examples of such mummies, which are almost never mentioned anywhere.

1. Spirit Cave Mummy

The so-called "Spirit Cave Mummy" was discovered in the Spirit Cave near the town of Fallon, Nevada. In 1940, Sydney and Georgia Wheeler were exploring and excavating dry caves in the area when an unfortunate incident led to a successful discovery. Sydney injured his ankle while fleeing a rattlesnake and the couple took refuge in a nearby cave. Inside, they found not only 67 artifacts, but also two bodies wrapped in reed rugs.

One body is well preserved in a cave. It belonged to a man, about 45-55 years old, who died about 1500 years ago. Only in 1994, with the help of modern technology, they were able to accurately determine the age of the mummy. And it turned out not to be one and a half thousand, but as much as 9,415 years. Incredibly, the mummy's genome sequence proved that this individual was closely related to modern Native Americans.

2. Man from Tollund

The next naturally occurring mummy, known as the Tollund man, was discovered in Denmark in the 1950s. It was assumed that the deceased was about 40 years old. His corpse was dug up in a peat bog, where the acidic and deoxygenated environment kept the body and internal organs in good condition. Initially, it was believed that it was the corpse of one of the locals who fell victim to criminals. However, it was later revealed that "the man from Tollund" had died over 2,000 years ago.

Man from Tollund

Most researchers believe that the cause of death determined at the autopsy in the 1950s was correct: Tollund was hanged. Rope marks were found on his neck, and in 2002 a forensic examination found that his tongue was sticking out and swollen, a common occurrence in death by hanging or strangulation. Although the body decomposed after it was removed from the swamp, the head was carefully preserved. She can still be seen attached to a copy of the body in the Silkeborg Museum.

3. Xin Zhui

The mummified remains of Xin Zhui (aka Lady Dai) belonged to a Han Dynasty noblewoman in ancient China. She died in 163 BC. at the age of approximately 50 years. Her grave was discovered in 1971 while the Chinese military was digging a tunnel near Changsha. She was discovered in an elaborate burial chamber with over 1,000 precious items inside.

The discovery of Xin Zhui is extremely important because she is one of the best preserved mummies ever discovered in China. In fact, her skin is still elastic and her muscles are in such good shape that her joints are still able to flex. The main organs and circulatory system are also in excellent condition. The scientists were even able to extract a small amount of blood from the mummy's vein and identify her blood type: type A. Incredibly, even her eyelashes and nose hair were intact, and Xin Zhui still has distinct fingerprints. For this reason, Xin Zhui's corpse is still being researched at the Hunan Museum, where they are trying to find the perfect way to preserve human bodies.

4. La Doncella

In 1999, the perfectly preserved body of a teenage girl was found atop Mount Lullaillaco in Argentina. Known as La Doncella ("The Virgin"), the girl was found next to the bodies of two more young children, a girl and a boy. Their bodies are among the best preserved mummies ever found. This is because they were frozen in ice on top of the mountain. It is believed that the "Virgo" died 500 years ago, and she was sacrificed by the Incas.

Sometimes children were sacrificed in various rituals, leaving them on mountain peaks, where they froze to death. As terrible as it sounds, it was considered an honor that only children from the most noble families could be bestowed. The shape of La Donachella's head suggests that she was indeed noble, as the shape of her skull was altered by traditional head wraps. Huge amounts of alcohol and coca leaves were also found in her system.

5. Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin died in January 1924, and his body is still in the pyramidal mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow. For many years now there have been disputes about what to do with the mummy of the leader of the proletariat - to bury or continue to exhibit.

Vladimir Lenin in the Mausoleum.

Now the corpse, closely monitored by scientists, is kept at the ideal temperature and humidity in an airtight glass container to prevent it from decomposing. The exact method used to preserve Lenin's body is considered a state secret. However, foreign scientists have found that this process involves removing all the organs of the body, injecting embalming fluid into the veins, and soaking the body in embalming fluid for about six months.

6. Rosalia Lombardo

Perhaps this is one of the saddest stories on this list. Rosalia Lombardo, who was only 2 years old, died in Palermo in 1920, a victim of pneumonia. Her father Mario Lombardo was so shocked by what had happened that he turned to the famous embalmer Alfredo Salafia with a request to keep the tiny corpse. The body is so perfectly preserved that Rosalia is often referred to as the "Sleeping Beauty".

Baby Rosalia Lombardo.

Her body is kept in a glass coffin in the Capuchin catacombs in Palermo. Rosalia's mummy gained a creepy reputation as observers claimed that her eyes opened and closed at different times of the day. It is even said that the iris of her eyes still has bright blue pigmentation. However, this intimidating claim was debunked when it was discovered that the effect was caused by alternating light passing through the windows of the catacombs, as her eyes are in fact in a permanent half-closed state.

7. Tattooed Princess Ukok

"Princess Ukok", who lived in the 5th century AD, proves that tattoos remain with a person not only for life, but also after it. Her remains were found in a burial immured in a layer of ice in Siberia. While she may not be a real princess, "Ukoka" was almost certainly a person of high status, as she was buried next to six horses. Food items and jewelry were also found next to her corpse, and some witnesses say there was even a container of cannabis.

Tattooed princess of Ukok.

Although her internal organs had long since disintegrated, her bones and some of her skin survived. Incredibly, the intricate tattoos on both of the woman's arms are perfectly preserved. They show complex images of animals and mythical creatures. It is believed that these tattoos were an important part of people's personalities, showing family ties. They may also have been useful after death, helping people find each other in the afterlife.

8. John Torrington

Poor John Torrington is another example of how the conditions in which a person is buried can turn him into the perfect mummy in a completely random way. He was an ordinary stoker on Franklin's expedition to the Arctic Circle. John died of lead poisoning at the age of only 22 and was buried with three companions in the icy conditions of the tundra. In the 1980s, scientists who decided to exhume the body to determine the cause of death were shocked.

John Torrington.

When they opened the coffin, they saw blocks of ice. Carefully melting the ice, scientists saw the perfectly preserved faces of John Torrington and his ill-fated companions, who looked directly at them. The only deterioration in the condition of the corpse was a slight tightening of the lips and eyelids. While part of John's face was blue, it wasn't because of the cold. His skin was dyed with the pigment of the blanket in which he was buried.

9. Saint Bernadette

Another relatively modern mummy, Saint Bernadette grew up in France during Victorian times. As a teenager, Bernadette Soubirous claimed to have repeatedly had a vision of the Virgin Mary. On the site where these visions were (in the grotto) a shrine was built, and thus began a series of miraculous healings attributed to the spring in this grotto. While many of these miracles have since been debunked, a number of people to this day claim to have been cured by the waters of Lourdes.

Saint Bernadette

Bernadette herself died in 1879 of tuberculosis and was posthumously canonized. Her body was exhumed at least three times and declared "incorruptible" by the church. In other words, it mummified quite well, although some areas of decomposition were observed. This must have contributed to the mishandling of her body during the exhumations. For this reason, it was decided to cover the face and hands with a layer of wax to hide the decomposition. The mummy can be seen in the chapel of Saint Gildar in Nevers.

10 Atacama Alien Mummy

Perhaps the most bizarre of all the mummies on this list, the tiny "alien" mummy from the Atacama has one of the most tragic stories. The size of the remains, which were found in the Chilean Atacama Desert, is only 15 centimeters in length.

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