Crypto Archeologico: The Capuchin Crypts

One of my favorite sites in Rome was the Capuchin Crypts. Built in the underground burial chapel of a Capuchin church, the stone crypts were filled with the bodies of deceased monks and decorated with the bones and mummified bodies of other dead.

My guide book reads, "Crypt requires the visitor to have a cast iron stomach."

To be honest, I don't know how much of each monk is actually buried down here. Most body parts were used as building material. But oh, what gorgeous crypts they made. And I mean "made" quite literally.


You can see a wall of skulls there and femur-and-tailbone scrollwork in the ceiling. Also, one monk on the far right is mummified. They still wear their original robes. I'm sure you've heard it many times before, but the "cappucino" is named after the color of the Cappuchin monks' robes.....fun fact to ease the eerieness.

The crypt is comprised of a long hallway with several of these domed chambers that you pass through. The lanterns that hang from the ceilings are made of hipbones. The space is cool and dark, and a hush settles over guests as they visit (it was nearly empty when I was there, heighening the goosbumpy feeling). There are crosses on the walls made of fibulae.

In the second to last chamber, the Capuchin coat of arms is mounted on the wall.

A pretty literal translation of "coat of arms": Two mummified monks arms grace the wall. One still wears the sleeve of his robe. The fingernails are rotted black.

When you reach the end, you dead end in a final chamber absolutely filled with bodies. On the ceiling hangs the corpse of a child holding a sickle and scales both made of bones, a tiny Hades hovering overhead.

Underneath baby Hades, a plaque rests in the dirt:

As if the rooms upon rooms of decaying bodies wern't enough to illustrate the fleeting nature of mortality, the monks leave us a plaque with no less than 4 translations of their sentiment. Also, that line at the end of the sentence acts as an ellipses in Italian and French. So really, it reads:

What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be...

The ellipses, for me, almost read as "in due time" or "soon enough" or "just wait and see". Added creepiness in an already creepy mantra.

So while the rest of the city is out celebrating the Roman version of joie de vivre, I encourage you on your next trip to Rome to take a minute out and celebrate the Capuchins' joie del la morte.