Fontanelle Cemetery

Neapel · Italy · Cemetery

Here you adopt a skull, wipe it clean and give it a name. The Captain's skull once answered a disrespectful visitor out loud.

In the tuff caverns beneath Rione Sanità lie the bones of tens of thousands of nameless dead from the plague of 1656 and the cholera of 1836. Out of those heaps grew the cult of the anime pezzentelle, the beggar souls: a poor Neapolitan would choose a capuzzella, a skull, wipe it clean, give it a name and pray for its soul in return for protection. The most-told legend is that of il Capitano. A young man brought his fiancee here and joked crudely in front of one skull, which answered him aloud. At the wedding an unknown guest in uniform appeared and took the bridegroom away with him. Another skull, called Concetta, is said to sweat and is the only one that always gleams. The archbishop banned the cult in 1969, but the flowers and folded notes are still there.

FAQ

Where is Fontanelle Cemetery located?

Fontanelle Cemetery is in Neapel, Italy.

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