Catacombs and Crypts in Italy

Saint Borromeo often prayed in this austere crypt during the 16th century.

Wander through a maze of empty tombs to find the poles used to hang revolutionary patriots.

A burial vault located under Tiber Island in the middle of the Italian capital.

The “Sistine Chapel” of the Middle Ages merges 11th-century science and religion in wondrous hues.

It’s said this crypt was the setting for the tragic finale of the Shakespeare play.

The remains of 50,000 World War I soldiers rest under a towering arch overlooking the Alpine battlefields.

Three underground crypts and a pointed arch under the bell tower make this cathedral unique among Romanesque churches.

Built on a medieval synagogue, this church has a burial crypt, tunnel system, and Jewish ritual bath hiding deep underneath.

The burial place of an obscure North African saint was turned into a macabre body preservation factory for the 17th-century Neapolitan elite.

Deceased nuns were placed on stone chairs to decompose, while the surviving nuns prayed near the lifeless bodies.

Naturally preserved bodies are eerily staged throughout the crypt in varying poses.

The skulls and bones of thousands of soldiers line the walls of this small Italian chapel.

The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead still cares for the skulls at this mini-Fontanelle.

A cave in southern Italy adorned with thousand-year-old Biblical frescoes existed in obscurity until fairly recently.

The bones of some 7,000 soldiers killed in the historic Battle of Solferino are stored here.

At the crypt of St. Mary of Eulogies and the Dead you are left alone to ponder mortality among piles of skulls.