THE CHURCH OF THE DEADS
THE CHURCH OF THE DEADS
IN URBANIA (MARCHE)
In a nice village called Urbania, only a few kilometers from Urbino, you can visit an ancient and astonishing Church (see below). Behind the altar there is a crypt where eighteen mummies naturally preserved have been exposed to the public for almost a couple of centuries.
Around 1800, after the Saint Cloud Edit, it was found casually that the tombs inside the Chapel of Cola contained many corpses that were well preserved. The phenomen was caused by a mould called Hippa Bombicina Pers, that dehydrated the human bodies absorbing all their liquids. A Confraternita decided to take care of the mummified bodies and to expose them in the Chapel. The Prior of the Confraternita himself decided to be showed in the Chapel, once he died. To be surer of the result, the Prior (named Vincenzo Piccini) helped the natural process inventing a special potion of herbs that should have also stopped the decomposition. The potion was firstly used for the daughter of the Prior (that died before him, pic on the right) and in 1832 for the Prior himself (pic on the left). Besides the daughter, the prior's wife, Maddalena Gatti (died in 1844).
|
The other fifteen bodies of the Chapel are all very interesting as everyone has a story to tell.....
For instance the two corpses below belonged to the baker of the village (left) and to a boy suffering of the Down syndrome(right).
|
Of this couple of bodies, the most interesting is the one at the right, as it belonged to a man that was killed (by a knife) during a party
|
The body below belonged to the most unlucky man of the village: he was buried alive (they thought he was dead) and when he waken up he was under a tomb: he died for the terror. His body was found with goose flesh, stomach turned inside (like looking for breath), muscles contracted and twisted
The woman below, died giving a baby to light. Indeed she underwent a caesarum cut, that two centuryes ago meant secure death for the mother. The crossed cut, as it used in the past, is still visible.
 |
 |
