Catacombs of San Gaudioso

Neapel · Italy · Cemetery

The skulls are set into the wall, and beneath each one the body is painted in its working clothes — the artist asked to be buried here himself.

Beneath the Basilica di Santa Maria della Sanità runs an early Christian catacomb of the fifth century, named for the North African bishop Gaudiosus buried here. In the 1600s the Dominicans took over the gallery and turned it into a burial place for the nobility, using a method named after its furniture: the scolatoi, masonry seats with a hole beneath, where the dead were placed until the fluids had drained away. What remained were the bones — and the skull was set into the wall at eye height. Below each cranium the rest of the body was painted on the plaster, dressed in the dead person's clothes with the tools of a trade or office in hand. The frescoes were made by Giovanni Balducci, who gave up his fee in return for a place among the aristocrats. It was here, they say, that the comic Totò conceived his poem on death levelling everyone.

FAQ

Where is Catacombs of San Gaudioso located?

Catacombs of San Gaudioso is in Neapel, Italy.

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