The amazing catacombs full of mummified monks

This was a way to preserve status and dignity even in death, by being clothed in the latest fashions and the most expensive cloth (although monks wore their everyday clothing and any ropes they had worn as penance).

It has been rumoured that the body of Spanish painter Velasquez is at Capuchin, but the exact position is unknown.

As well as providing clothing for their deceased, and generally keeping them looking presentable, grieving relatives gave financial donations to the monastery, which helped maintain the catacombs and guarantee their loved one a permanent spot at the site.

If the relatives ceased to pay these contributions, then the body would be removed from its resting place and left on a shelf until more money arrived.

clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk Dating back to the 16th Century, the catacombs were dug under the Capuchin Monastery when it's original cemetary had been filled It sounds like something out of a horror movie - except this is the macabre sight which greets thousands of tourists in Palermo, Sicily, each year. A total of 8,000 mummies are housed in niches along the walls of the Capuchin Catacombs. clipped from viewer.zoho.com clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk Hung from hooks by their necks and feet, they wear expensive-looking clothes and their heads hang as if in prayer. clipped from viewer.zoho.com clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk Some have been posed - two children sit side-by-side in a rocking chair - and men, women, virgins, children, monks and professionals have been separated. clipped from viewer.zoho.com clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk Bodies were hung on ceramic pipes in the catacombs, to dry out for up to eight months, before being washed with vinegar and exposed to the open air. clipped from viewer.zoho.com clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk Some were then embalmed, while others were sealed in glass cases. the tombs were officially closed in 1871. The last person to be interred there was a small girl, aged only two, called Rosalia Lombardo, in 1920. clipped from viewer.zoho.com