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Capuchin Crypt

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Mary Louisa
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Editor Pick

Lampshades of Shoulder-Blades

  • October 20, 2009
  • Rated 4 of 5 by airynfaerie from St. Augustine, Florida
Lampshades of Shoulder-Blades

Possibly one of the most creepiest places in Italy, the Capuchin Crypt is a hallway full of bones. Located in a room beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini in Rome, this crypt dates back to the early 1600s when Pope Urban VIII's brother who was of the Capuchin Order exhumed bones from past friars to begin the crypt's collection. The total number of bodies grew over the years and now is an amazing disply of over 4,000 friars buried until the late 1800s.

Just off the Rome's tree-lined famous avenue of Via Veneto, the church has a elegant exterior, and we didn't completely know what to expect when we entered. We walked down the stairs on the side, through a small doorway, and past the attendant and a table with a donation basket, then turned to see the hallway of bones. The couple in front of us had to leave right away as the lady was a bit to shaken by the scene. It was shocking at first, as growing up in modern America, we're not used to seeing dead bodies, bones, or anything like this.

From the somewhat short hallway, there are several little chapel rooms off to the left. These chapels are named very point-blank from "Crypt of the Skulls", "Crypt of the Pelvises", and "Crypt of the Leg and Thigh Bones". As soon as you look into each one, you can identify right away which chapel it is...as there were stacked femur bones comprising the total perimeter of the "Crypt of Leg Bones".

It was so strange to see human bones used as intricate decorations in this place. Lampshades made of shoulder blades, door posts of vertebrae, crosses with arms, and even entire intact skeletons of children hanging on the ceiling. Even though this was known as an honor for your body to be used in this way during that time, it's such a stark difference to the way we treat the dead now -and almost seems irreverent. But the more I thought of it, the more I liked the idea that the bodies and bones were used in a decorative and honorary way as this, because it seems to signify even more what the church claims to believe...that the soul of a person lies somewhere else after death, and the body is just earthly material again.

There are a few friars who are believed to have miraculously not decomposed fully, as skin still remains around the skeletal figures, and many wear their original friar robes. No matter your beliefs, this is a very unique stop in Rome - not too haunting, although a bit shocking - but very interesting!

• Via Vittorio Veneto 27
• Open 9am - 12pm, 3pm - 6pm (Fri - Wed)
• Free admission (Donation suggested)

From journal Cemeteries and Skulls in Italy

Editor Pick

Capuchin Crypt

  • March 31, 2002
  • Rated 4 of 5 by Mary Louisa from Wilmington, Delaware
Capuchin Crypt

This crypt comprises five vaulted rooms containing the bones and graves of over 4000 Capuchin Franciscans, assembled in a unique ornamental fashion in 1764. All decoration in the white-painted rooms is made only of human bones. From the light fixtures to the crucifixes to the angels--all ornamentation reminds the viewer that human life is ephemeral. The spirit is what prevails.

The final room of the quiet journey through the crypt contains these words from beyond: "What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be." It is a dislocating yet moving sentiment to the tourist, who may have just toddled across the street from Rome's Hard Rock Cafe unknowingly entering this world of memento mori.

The crypt is open every day but Thursday, from 9 to noon and 3 to 6. There is no admission fee, but you are asked to donate what you can. No photography is allowed. A small gift store at the front sells post cards of each of the rooms. (I've reproduced two post cards below, photos by Cristafaro Guiseppe.)

From journal Four Days in Rome

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