About
A religion that is committed to taking care of the ancient dead has brought together skulls from the World War II bombings and the 1656 epidemic.
Like many ossuaries in Europe, the Cimitero Fontanelle began as a secondary burial ground when the churches and crypts began to overflow. Unlike other ossuaries, the skulls of the anonymous dead were lovingly cared for, named, and then asked for prophecies of winning lotto numbers. The offloading of temporarily buried remains into this cave on the outskirts of town began during the Spanish occupation of Naples in the 1500s, but the majority of its 40,000 residents came from the devastating plague outbreak of 1656 and smaller cholera epidemics in the 1830s.
