How Many Graveyards Has Raph Visited?

[Danceingfae]

Soon as we get moved I'll see if I can find any pictures. We weren't suppose to take pictures inside of this place but.. I think I got a few anyways before they 'reminded us'

My favorite thing about this catacomb though is the little girl who is preserved just as she was when she died in 1920. Her name was Rosalia Lombardo. She was two years old when she died and preserved, by Professor Alfredo Salafia. He was paid by her father to preserve her, a methood that was never shared or given to anyone else.

Here's her pic

To find websites for the catacombs just type in Palermo catacombs

[Michaelangelo]

Wow that is... wow....     I mean...  wow..... *calls Miki in to show*   

[Danceingfae]

lol. And just think I was lucky enough to see this in person, though Rosalia is behind a gate. You can still see her but you can not get up close to her casket.

[Michaelangelo]

yeah I think I can understand why.... let her at least have her peace and rest... if people could go up close to it wouldn't be the best resting place for her.

[Aignatius]

 

Truly amazing.

[Michaelangelo]

I just showed my mom even... this one really took me off guard...   she was shocked to see how well preserved the body is as well.   Poor girl dieing that young...

[Danceingfae]

*Nods* The story as I remembered it was that she had gotten really, really sick. When her father found out that there was pretty much no hope in saving her he found the professor to pay him anything to help preserve her.

Now here's where things get different. Some say it was the girls father who was the professor, there's theories that wax was usedm injected into the body to take place of the moisture that was lost, her coffin is also airtight and that helps in the preservation .. a whole of of bizarre things. There's no way to know though since it is not allowed to examine the body. I agree to the not examining it because if she was exsposed to air it would really suck.. You know I'm going to make this into it's own thread cause were're getting off topic here.

Here we go!

Rosalia Lombardo ~ From the catacombs of Palermo, Sicily

[Raphael]

Oh, that pic popped up on one of my other message boards.  Lot of mixed feelings about it.

I've done searches on ebay for coffin shaped things (like a watch or my LDD's boxes) and have come up many times with pictures of people in coffins. The Victorian English really had some different funerary rituals, including getting portraits/pictures done of the deceased, sitting up in a chair or doing some sort of pose as if they were merely asleep. The monarchy used to have death portraits painted of them, as well.  Can't recall which person it was, but they had been beheaded...the head was propped back in place so the body could 'sit' for their death portrait.

[Danceingfae]

Eeep! That is wayyy creepy. I can see it being done but to think about doing that.. *Shudders*

I think it was in mexico (or somewhere) that on Halloween the living relatives would go and change the clothes of the deceased.