If you’re looking for obscure or quirky places to go in Italy, you’ve come to the right place. The Catacombe dei Cappuccini are a complex of tunnels and shrines in Palermo, Sicily that are decorated entirely with mummified corpses. Be warned: this visit is not for the fainthearted…
You descend down into the catacombs via the monastery of Capuchin monks, on the face of it an unassuming and innocent building. However, the labyrinthine tunnels beneath the monastery hold a dark secret: close to 8,000 mummies lining the walls, all dressed in their finest clothes.
While the dead bodies may look creepy, the original idea for the catacombs was actually quite sweet. The Capuchin friars developed a technique to dry and preserve the bodies of local people and lay them to rest wearing their favourite finery in order to honour them after death. The bodies are on display and arranged according to profession, with rooms dedicated to doctors, women, children and the clergy.
The mummification process would take about a year, and involved draining all the liquids from the body and treating it with a chemical cocktail of formalin, alcohol, glycerin, salicylic acid and zinc salts. The oldest corpse in the crypt is the body of a friar named Silvestro da Gubbio who died in 1599. The most recent addition was Rosalia Lombardo in 1920, who was only two years old when she was embalmed.
The Capuchin catacombs in Palermo, Italy are by no means the only macabre tourist attraction in Italy. Other similar unusual places to visit include the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini in Rome, better known as the skeleton church, or the bone church.
It’s not possible to pre-book tickets to visit the catacombs, so you’ll have to just turn up and buy them on the door. Remember that it is a religious place, so please be respectful with the installations and don’t touch the dead bodies. Photos and videos are not allowed because they can interfere with the structural integrity of the mummies, but you can see more photos on the Capuchin crypt website.
- Opening hours of the Capuchin Catacombs: 09:00-13:00; 15:00-18:00. The catacombs are closed on Sunday afternoons from late October to late March.
- Ticket prices for the Capuchin Catacombs: 3 euro
