Chiesa dei Morti
Church of the Dead
On Sunday morning after one last breakfast, we said sad goodbyes to hosts Ashley and Jason at La Tavola Marche, fired up Persephone, and headed off for Lucca, a small Italian town located between Florence (Firenze) and Pisa.
But before we got too far on the day's journey, we stopped off in Urbania hoping that the Chiesa dei Morti (which we tried to visit the day prior) was open. We were in luck — it was.
The church itself was only a small room with a few pews in front of the altar. I’m not sure how widely it’s used in modern times, but today the church is operated by Bona Mors Confraternity (the Confraternity of the Good Death), a group that dates back to 1567 to help and comfort the condemned and those who could not afford funeral services.
The Mummies of Urbania
Off to the side a gentleman, presumably a member of the Confraternity, sat behind a small table and sold tickets for €2 that would allow entry to the small room behind the altar where the mummies of Urbania are on display.
The mummies have an interesting story ... as you would expect from mummies. In 1804, Napoleon issued the Edict of St. Cloud, which proclaimed that cemeteries could no no longer be located inside city walls for sanitary reasons. And when the bodies of the local cemetery were exhumed, they found 18 of them that had been mummified. So in 1833, a churchyard was built that held niches for these 18 corpses.
While we were there a large tour group (well, large for the space, maybe eight people plus a guide) was there so we couldn’t get photos of all the mummies together — and they’re behind glass (probably a good thing), so photography was tricky anyway. Still, we managed to capture a few images of them.
Some of the mummies have known identities. The only mummy with clothes is Vincenzo Piccini, a prior (perhaps once of the Confraternity, though this was not totally clear). His wife is known as well, plus there are a few others with names.
There’s also a mummy that had Down's syndrome, one who’d died from a Caesarian section, and a young man who was stabbed at a dance (not sure how that last part is known). They were really creepy, and they reminded us of the draugr from Skyrim.
If you enjoy learning about unusual funerary practices involving the skeletons of the dead, check out the Catacombs of Paris and the Sedlec Ossuary.
Header Image: The mummified visage of Vincenzo Piccini. All images from the author's collection.