Location: The Church of The Dead, F. Ugolini avenue- Urbania
Hours:
summer hours: everyday from 10,00 to 12.30 and from 15.00 to 18.00
winter hours: reservation (2 guided visits per day)
closed on Mondays and 2 of November
Information:
Tel. 0722 313140 – Fax: 0722 317988 (Tourist Information Office – Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 21)
www.urbania-casteldurante.it
turicult@comune.urbania.ps.it
for guided visits:
Tel. 349 8195469 (Giovanni Maestrini)
Tel. 347 8543488 (Michele Spinaci)
Tel. 0722319866 (Giuseppe Ducci)
Tel. 0722 319446 (Parrocchia S. Cristoforo Martire – via del Duomo, 5)
Amidst the oak-tree valley where the river embraces Urbania, lies the ancient Casteldurante, famous in Europe for its 16th century ceramics. The town offers a quaint environment and landscape together with numerous Ducal churches and storical buildings which stimulate the rediscovery of past history. In Urbania, every year, there are language courses, literary awards and a summer season packed full of interesting appointments and important National exhibitions.
The Church of the Dead, known as the Capella Cola until 1836, is adorned with a beautiful gothic doorway. Inside lies the Cemetery of the Mummies famous for its strange phenomenon of natural mummification, caused by the particular mould present within which has absorbed moisture from the corpses leading to the complete desiccation of the bodies. In 1833, following the foundation of out of town cemeteries by order of the 1804 Napoleonic edict of Saint Cloud, 18 mummified corpses from nearby tombs were displayed behind the church altar. The Brotherhood of Good Death, founded in Casteldurante in 1567, organised the layout of the corpses under the patronage of Saint Giovanni Decollato. (Inside the church there is a representation of this saint, an artwork by Giustino Episcopi). The saints tasks were to arrange free transport and burial of the dead (especially the poor), to assist the dying, to register the dead in a special book as well as to collect and distribute money for the poor. During a death ceremony, the brothers wore a white sack with a cap (visible at the centre of the church in the figure of Prior Vincenzo Piccini, inventor of the necropolis).
The mummies of Urbania have a different story to tell to each new visitor. There within lies a young lady who died whilst having a Caesarian, a boy knifed during a nocturnal dance, or even, so they say, an unlucky man that was buried alive but thought dead. But let the guardian reveal the secrets hidden behind each mummified character.
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