The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo and Their Preserved Dead

In most cemeteries the dead are hidden. In the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo they are on display: friars in their habits, men in frock coats, women in lace, children in their best clothes, standing in wall niches or lying in glass-fronted coffins, some with faces still recognizable after centuries.

How did it begin?

With an accident. The Capuchin friars settled in Palermo in 1534 and buried their dead in a common pit. When it filled, late in the 16th century, they dug a new crypt and exhumed the old graves to move them, and found that 45 of the bodies had mummified naturally, their faces still recognizable, according to a Smithsonian report. The friars took it as a sign from God and placed the bodies in niches along the walls of the new crypt. The first body deliberately placed there was Brother Silvestro of Gubbio, who died on October 16, 1599, and he can still be seen in the first hall, according to a conservation-science paper by researchers on the site.

Why were ordinary citizens buried there?

Status, and the hope of being seen. The crypt was meant for friars, but as word of the preservation spread, Palermo’s upper classes asked to be entombed there too, according to a caving reference site, and it became a mark of standing. Families paid for the care of their dead and could visit them, dressed as they had been in life; some left instructions to have their clothes changed over the years, according to a travel account. If payments stopped, a body was moved to a shelf until the family caught up. The catacombs’ own website, quoted by Smithsonian, calls mummification a way to preserve status and dignity even in death.

How were the bodies preserved?

Mostly by the place itself. The crypt’s dry air and limestone preserved bodies, and the friars helped the process along: bodies were laid out on racks of ceramic pipes in sealed chambers to drain and dry for months, then washed with vinegar, dressed, and placed in their niches, according to the travel account and the conservation paper. In some periods bodies were bathed in arsenic or injected with preservatives. Only a few were chemically embalmed in the modern sense.

Who is Rosalia Lombardo?

The last person placed in the catacombs, and the most famous. Burials officially ended in 1880, with a few exceptions afterward. Rosalia Lombardo died of pneumonia in 1920 at age two, and her father asked the embalmer Alfredo Salafia to preserve her. His formula was lost until 2007, when the anthropologist Dario Piombino-Mascali found it in Salafia’s handwritten papers: a mix of formalin, zinc salts, alcohol, salicylic acid, and glycerin, injected into the body, published in 2009 in the journal Virchows Archiv. The zinc salts gave the body rigidity and are thought to be what set his method apart. Rosalia lies in a sealed glass case in the children’s section, so well preserved that she appears to be sleeping. Her coffin was later moved to a drier spot to slow further deterioration.

How many bodies are there?

Sources disagree. Popular accounts say up to 8,000. The research team’s survey counted about 1,850 remaining, 1,252 exposed in niches and 600 in coffins, and a 2022 study put the collection at 1,284 bodies including 163 children, according to NBC News. The difference reflects how many have decayed, been removed, or were never counted. The halls are divided by category: men, women, virgins, children, priests, monks, and professionals.

What is being learned from them?

Since 2007 the Sicily Mummy Project, led by Piombino-Mascali, has studied the bodies with X-rays and CT scans, confirming ages and sexes and looking for signs of disease, and has worked on conservation as the crypt’s changing climate and tourist traffic cause deterioration. A 2022 project led by Kirsty Squires of Staffordshire University is X-raying 41 children who died between 1787 and 1880, using 14 images per child to build a profile of each, because the bodies cannot be moved from the crypt. Piombino-Mascali has said the work has reopened conversation about death in Sicily, where for centuries mummification kept a relationship between the living and the dead.

How does this compare to other preserved dead?

The Capuchin mummies are mostly natural, like bog bodies or the mummies of the Andes, rather than deliberately prepared like Egyptian ones. See mummification: how and why people preserved the dead and the Paris Catacombs.

This is a history article. Figures such as the number of people buried at a site are estimates that vary between sources, and visiting rules change; check the site’s official page before planning a visit.