Sunday 14 July 2013

Il Convento dei Cappuccini, La Cripta




Underneath the Santa Maria della Immacolata Concezione dei Cappuccini church in Rome is this mind blowing crypt. It features the bones of more than 4,000 monks who died between 1528 and 1870.


It is said that an artist taking refuge from justice in the sanctuary of the friary adourned these chambers of death during his long period of attonement. Described as the work of a grotesque & hermit-like genius.



There are six small chapels in the Crypt. All but one is adorned with bones. Some of the bone-covered chapels feature mainly one bone. There’s a “Crypt of the Leg Bones and Thigh Bones” and a “Crypt of the Pelvises.”

Quello che voi siete noi ervano; Quello che noi siano voi sarete - 
What you are now we used to be; What we are now you will be.

Photography is prohibited inside the crypt ;)




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