Palermo, Sicily, Italy - Capuchin Catacombes - postcard c.1970s

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  Palermo - Capuchins Catacombs - Central Passage
• Publisher: Mistretta-Via
• Postally used: no
• Stamp:  n/a
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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo (also Catacombe dei Cappuccini or Catacombs of the Capuchins) are burial catacombs in Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. Today they provide a somewhat macabre tourist attraction as well as an extraordinary historical record.

Palermo's Capuchin monastery outgrew its original cemetery in the 16th century and monks began to excavate crypts below it. In 1599 they mummified one of their number, the recently-deceased brother Silvestro of Gubbio, and placed him in the catacombs.[citation needed]

Bodies were dehydrated on racks of ceramic pipes in the catacombs and sometimes later washed with vinegar. Some bodies were embalmed and others were enclosed in sealed glass cabinets. Friars were preserved with their everyday clothing and sometimes with ropes they had worn in penance.[citation needed]

Initially the catacombs were intended only for deceased friars. However, in later centuries it became a status symbol to be entombed in the Capuchin catacombs. In their wills, local luminaries would ask to be preserved in certain clothes, or even have their clothes changed at regular intervals. Priests wore their clerical vestments, while others were clothed according to contemporary fashion. Relatives would visit to pray for the deceased and to maintain the body in presentable condition.[citation needed]

The catacombs were maintained through donations from the relatives of the deceased. Each new body was placed in a temporary niche and later placed into a more permanent location. So long as contributions continued, the body remained in its proper place but if relatives stopped sending money, the body was put aside on a shelf until they resumed payments.[citation needed]

Interments

Rosalia Lombardo, who died in 1920, as she appeared in 1982

In 1871 Brother Riccardo was the last friar interred in the catacombs, but other famous people were interred after that. The catacombs were officially closed in 1880 but tourists continued to visit. The last burials are from the 1920s and 1930s. Among the final interments was Rosalia Lombardo, then nearly two years old, whose body remains remarkably intact, preserved with a procedure performed by Professor Alfredo Salafia. His process included formalin to kill bacteria, alcohol to dry the body, glycerin to keep it from over drying, salicylic acid to kill fungi, and the most important ingredients, zinc salts (zinc sulfate and zinc chloride) to give the body rigidity.[1][2] The formula is one part glycerin, one part formalin saturated with both zinc salts, and one part of an alcohol solution saturated with salicylic acid.[citation needed] The final burial was that of Giovanni Licata di Baucina, the count of Isnello, in 1939.[3]

The catacombs contain about 8,000 corpses and 1,252 mummies (as stated by last census made by EURAC in 2011) that line the walls. The halls are divided by category: men, women, virgins, children, priests, monks, and professionals. Some bodies are better preserved than others. Some are set in poses; for example, two children are sitting together in a rocking chair. The coffins were accessible to the families of the deceased so that on certain days the family, including the deceased, could join their hands in prayer.[citation needed]

Famous people buried in the catacombs include:

Filippo d'Austria (formerly Ayala), prince of Tunis and convert to Catholicism (1620)[4]

Giuseppe Grimau, president of the kingdom (1755)[5]

Vincenzo Natoli, judge (1770)[6]

Lorenzo Marabitti, sculptor (early 19th c.)[7]

Filippo Pennino, sculptor (1801) [8]

Giuseppe Velasco, painter (1827)[9]

Salvatore Manzella, surgeon (1835)[10]

Colonel Giulio Ascanio Enea, war committee member (1848)[11][12]

Giovanni Corrao, partisan (1863)[13]

Paolo Ragona, colonel of artillery (1863)[14]

Bishop Agostino Franco (1877), titular Bishop of Hermopolis[15]

Giovanni Paterniti, an American Vice-Consul (1911)[16]

Ernesto Salafia, fencing master (1914)[17][18]

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa is sometimes said to be interred the catacombs, but he is buried in the cemetery next to them.