The Capuchin Catacombs: a place where the living and the dead meet

A place born by chance

The history of the Capuchin Catacombs dates back to 1534 when the Capuchin friars settled in the Church of Santa Maria della Pace in Palermo. They were initially created as a burial place for the monks of the convent: it was a simple pit built under the altar. Soon, however, the grave was not enough to contain all the bodies and, consequently, in 1597, the friars began digging an underground cemetery: today's Catacombs, the construction of which was completed two years later.

When the friars moved the relics from the grave to the new burial site, they were surprised to find that 45 bodies were still well preserved and had mummified naturally. This event was interpreted as a sign of divine will and so the friars decided to display the bodies in special niches in an upright position: this marked the beginning of the Catacombs as we know them today. The first body to be transported was that of Brother Sylvester of Gubbio, which is still preserved in the Catacombs today. The bodies are dressed and have a sign with their name and date of death.

The thin line between life and death

The discovery of well-preserved bodies only increased the phenomenon of embalming and the friars devoted themselves to perfecting the techniques. As a result, the convent gained a certain reputation until, in 1783, this type of 'burial' was extended to anyone who could afford the cost of embalming. Among the various techniques used were natural mummification, artificial mummification and arsenic baths. The first consisted of removing body fluids by laying the bodies on drainage structures after removing all internal organs. The second, on the other hand, was done by injecting chemicals and during epidemics, arsenic baths were used.

For two centuries, the friars housed thousands of bodies of illustrious people and Sicilian notables placed in various corridors and divided by profession, gender and social position. During the visit, you will pass through the corridor of the Capuchin friars, the oldest part, the women's corridor, the men's corridor, the chapel of the Crucifix, where the virgins were kept, the children's chapel and, finally, the corridor of the professionals (lawyers, doctors, painters, etc.).

What drove the families of the deceased was not only the desire to preserve the state of the bodies, but above all the desire to continue to see their loved ones, to talk to them almost as if they were still alive.

Today, the Catacombs constitute a veritable museum of the dead and represent a cultural heritage much appreciated by tourists. Even the poets and writers of the time, such as Guy de Maupassant, Mario Praz, Alexandre Dumas, Carlo Levi and Ippolito Pindemonte, were so fascinated by them that the latter eulogised them in I Sepolcri, and the street leading to the church of Santa Maria della Pace was named Pindemonte in honour of the poet.

At the end of the 19th century, the cemetery was closed, with the exception of two other corpses that were received in 1911 and 1920: respectively that of Giovanni Paterniti, vice-consul of the United States, and that of Rosalia Lombardo, a little girl of only two years old who died of pneumonia. Today, Rosalia Lombardo's body is displayed in a shrine, completely intact, and has become the symbol of the Catacombs.

When the little girl died, shortly before her second birthday, her father, grief-stricken and unable to accept death, insisted that she be embalmed so that she could 'live' forever. In fact, it seems that this beautiful little girl with golden curls and a rosy complexion fell into a deep sleep lasting more than a hundred years and was therefore nicknamed the 'Sleeping Beauty of Palermo'. The embalming technique used by Dr. Alfredo Salafia to perfectly preserve the little girl's body remains unknown to this day.