PALERMO CATACOMBS
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While preparing to visit the capital of Sicily, we were choosing interesting sights of Palermo and paid attention to the Capuchin Catacombs, which is considered one of the most famous exhibitions of mummies in the world. The only mummy we had previously seen up close was the famous Vladimir Lenin that lies in Red Square in Moscow. We visited it in the fierce winter of 2005 and were surprised at how unnatural the “most human man” 🙄 looked 🙄
The navigator in Palermo was set to Piazza Cappuccini and took us to the monastery of these very Capuchins, some narrow and sometimes even dark streets of the city with a complicated criminal past. For the aesthetics of the reportage, we chose the prettiest street of the ones we used to get to the catacombs.
We spent most of the way among gray-colored buildings with crumbling plaster. The general feeling could be described by the words “inexpensive outskirts of the city”. And only the kittens were happy to see us, as always.
A plaque on one of these gray walls managed to heighten the already anxious mood of the two tourists from Ukraine who found themselves here. The marble plaque said that it was here that the Attorney General of Palermo, along with his driver and bodyguard, died at the hands of the Mafia in 1971. On this narrow deserted street, their car was blocked by another car, from which three mafiosos got out and shot them at point-blank range.
Long or short, we emerged from a sad little alleyway into Capuchin Square. The monastery of the same name did not greet us very hospitably - there was a break in the catacombs.
It's not very clear why mummies need a lunch break, but it couldn't be helped, we had to walk around the piazza for an hour.
But nothing is accidental, or to put it another way, there is no good without good. Not far from Piazza Capuchin, we came across Splendori (Splendor), a cafe store selling gelato, coffee and wine. It was there that we had the most delicious pistachio gelato of our lives.
Since then, we even have a tradition to try pistachio ice cream in different countries and after the first scoop we must say: “No, it's clearly not as good as that ice cream from Palermo...”. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 We have already conducted such tests in Turkey, Lithuania, Ukraine, and the closest to the ideal, to date, was the ice cream in the departure area of Rhodes airport in Greece. The unique in flavor sample itself is on the next photo, in a set with its chocolate counterpart:
By 3:00 p.m., the end of the break, we pulled up to the entrance of the Catacombs. As a side note: it started with St. Sebastian in Rome, who was first pierced with arrows but survived, then stoned and his body thrown into a gutter. He then appeared in a dream to a Christian woman and ordered her to take his body to be buried in long underground corridors on the outskirts of Rome, which was done in 288. It was this burial site that was first officially named the Catacombs. And by meaning, approximately meant: Way to sleep / Place of falling asleep, in common parlance - the place where they die. Now catacombs are called any long underground tunnels under cities, regardless of whether there are burials or not. But if we turn to the historical meaning of the name, then in Odessa or Kerch are not quite catacombs, but rather long underground galleries. You will see the real catacombs now.
The front door opened and a middle-aged man came out, collecting three euros each from the entrants and letting them inside. We headed down this corridor as well.
The first minutes after entering shocked us. The empty eye sockets of skulls stared at us from all sides, dozens of skeletons bent over us as we walked through the halls of this terrible gallery.
The first mummy here was the figure of a monk in 1599, when it was discovered that the microclimate of the dungeon prevents decomposition of bodies. At first, the bodies of the monks of the order were stacked in them, but the benefactors and donors of the monastery began to insist that their bodies were also allocated a place. The monks dug new galleries, and when in 1739 the Archbishop of Palermo transferred the rights to give places in the catacombs to the abbot of the monastery, it began.... For the next 140 years, it became the most popular and status place in Palermo for the burial of nobles and bourgeois.
The wealthiest Palermitans, along with the right of burial, bought here a lot of additional services, such as periodic washing of the skeleton or changing into new clothes every six months.
Seeing the excitement surrounding burials in this place, the church authorities in 1837 banned open burials. The deceased could only be laid to rest in a closed coffin. But could the resourceful Sicilians stop such restrictions? Hardly. Now the bodies were indeed left in the catacomb gallery only in closed coffins. But by some strange coincidence (nobody talks about possible corruption of catacomb keepers 😉 ), but at all coffins placed along the walls, after some time the board that was on the side of the passage fell out and happy relatives after that, could see the mummies of their predecessors. Roughly like the one in the next picture.
Some of the mummies, for some reason, are covered with a dense lattice, are there really those who want to encroach on the ancient bones! Although, probably, there are some, because some skeletons are left only skulls.
The most amazing thing is that the more than 8000 mummies stored here are all ancestors of the current residents of Palermo, and on some religious holidays, the latter come here to check on the former (and it's good that it's not the other way around 😜). It's hard to imagine what emotions people can feel when standing in front of their great-great-great-grandfather, or looking at their great-great-great-great-grandmother hanging from the wall.
After a while, the horror of the first impression passes, and you already look at this gathering with a certain curiosity. Who are these people, how did they end up here? Why did the “river of time” make neighbors in one hall of those who lived in different centuries? And many, many other questions come to mind in this strange place.
Or, for example, what is special about the heroes of the gloomy installations, of which there are several. How was the personal placement determined?
Some of the gloomy ensembles are not only complete, but also dressed stylistically the same. Of course this is possible because they could have lived in the same period of time, but the possibility that a certain catacomb keeper so manifested his creative abilities cannot be ruled out either.
The protagonist of this afterlife exhibition is a girl named Rosalia, who did not live to be two years old. She was the last mummy to be buried here. It happened in 1920. Her main feature was that as a result of embalming, which was carried out by the famous Italian chemist Alfredo Salafia, the body of the girl was preserved completely incorruptible.
The secret of embalming, the author did not disclose during his lifetime, but after his death, the recipe was found in his diaries, and as they write - helped to organize a breakthrough in the science of embalming.
Having completed such a sightseeing tour, we headed in a philosophical mood towards the exit of the Capuchin Monastery dungeon.
On the way out we were offered to buy a brochure dedicated to the catacombs of Palermo, which also tells the story of the US vice-consul, the only foreigner buried here in 1911. And of course, it contains a detailed story about the girl Rosalia. The title of the publication is “La Veglia Eterna” - “The One Who Watches Forever”. We leafed through it, but for some reason we didn't want to have it at home.
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