# Ossuary



## spinwitch (Jun 14, 2009)

WARNING! Pictures of human remains in this post.

I just got back from Naples, Italy, visiting some family members who are living there. Our niece wanted to go see a cemetery she had heard about. We sort of got lost, which is *really* easy to do in Naples, but we spotted a sign that said "Cimetero delle Fontanelle" which looked promising, although the entrance didn't, so we went in. It was a large cave carved into the tuffa (volcanic rock)


















Didn't look much like a cemetery--until we saw what was behind those low white fences.









We had wandered into an ossuary. Not like the ones in Paris, where you know what you're getting into, and walk down below the ground until you get there. This was just off the street, not well marked, and there were only a few people there. Pretty creepy. But lovely in an odd way. Especially with birds singing just outside.


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## Copchick (Apr 10, 2012)

What a unique discovery. I like the mementos that were left with the remains. Very cool pics.


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## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

Thanks for sharing. Interesting how other people do things


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## spinwitch (Jun 14, 2009)

It dates back to the 1500s. Basically it was a pauper's graveyard. Then at some point people felt sorry for these forgotten remains and "adopted" them (so the reliquaries and mementos are left by people who don't know who the remains are.)


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

It's nice to see that people will treat human remains with respect, even when they don't know who they belong to.


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## Mihijo13 (Aug 16, 2015)

Very cool !! Thank you for sharing! I would love to see it in person someday!


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## GothicCandle (Mar 26, 2007)

spinwitch said:


> It dates back to the 1500s. Basically it was a pauper's graveyard. Then at some point people felt sorry for these forgotten remains and "adopted" them (so the reliquaries and mementos are left by people who don't know who the remains are.)


That's really nice. It's too bad American culture doesn't really allow us to do that sort of thing(without being thought as strange. Not that I care about being called strange lol)


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