CAPUCCINI MONASTERY

PALERMO (SICILY)

The story of these Catacombs starts in the XVI Century, when the Capuccini monks arrived in Palermo. Their first cemetery (1534) was a well made of tufa , where the bodies of the deads were placed one over the other. Around 1599 the corpses were exhumed and it was a big surprise to see that the bodies were perfectly preserved. The phenomenon of the natrural mummification was then used to make the monastery famous. The bodies were dried 8 months in the tufa, washed with vinegar and dressed and then showed in the 4 corridors called "Catacombs".

In 1885 the Italian law prohibited the making of new mummies and from that time all the corpses should have been buried.

During the II W.W. the Americans bombers hit the Monastery and unfortunately many mummies were turned into pieces.

Now it is still possible to see the 800 mummies of the Monastry.

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