The Mummies of Ferentillo

Ferentillo- Provincia di Terni, Umbria, Italia

Entrance to the museum

Ferentillo is a town in the Umbria region of Italy. In the town you will find ancient castle ruins in the hills and Santo Stefano, an old church built on top of an even older church. The area is known for good hiking and is near one of the largest waterfalls in Europe. It's not a hot tourist spot but Ferentillo offers a unique museum- one that was never intended to be such, but through unusual circumstances, is.

A road sign points the way.

In the lower level of the Church of St. Stephen (Chiesa di Santo Stefano) is a crypt. Through unique climatic conditions and a distinct microorganism, the people that were buried in the crypt were naturally mummified, they still have eyelashes, hair, teeth, nails and remnants of their original clothes on. It is a snapshot in time.

In 1804-1806, Napoleon issued the edict of Saint-Cloud forbidding the burial of bodies within the confines of a town, (for health/sanitation reasons). Thus the bodies interred beneath the church were unearthed to be buried elsewhere. Excavators were expecting to find a pile of bones, instead they found whole bodies complete with skin and clothes, which had been naturally mummified. Santo Stefano church was built in the 16^th century over the ruins of an even older church. The older ruins were used as a catacombs but the bodies were not unearthed until after the Napoleonic edict. Scientific studies of the remains determined that a fungus had populated the remains and halted decay, preserving the bodies and leading to natural mummification. The bodies have been conserved and encased in glass, and the place has been made into a museum.

Oggi a me, domani a te.
Io fui quel che tu sei
tu sarai quel che io sono.
Pensa mortal che il tuo fine è questo,
e pensa pur che ciò sarà ben presto.
Today me, tomorrow you.
I was what you are
and you will be what I am.
Consider, mortal, that your end is this
and consider also that it will be quite soon

What makes these remains unique is that they are not all special citizens or religious figures who have been purposely preserved, they are regular people. You can see a mother, who died in childbirth, and her infant, art frescoes from the earlier 13^th century church, and along with the mummies are the stories of the people that used to be. There are the Chinese tourists, supposedly on their honeymoon...the husband died of the plague. The wife brought his body to the church and prayed for him, she also wound up dying and they were both interred in the crypt, where you can see them today.

One of the Ferentillo mummies

You can also see the man who was struck by the church bell and killed, with bell damage plainly visible on his remains. There is the lawyer who was murdered and buried in the crypt, and right beside him the lies the body of his murderer (the hunchback Severino), possibly put there to help his soul transition into the afterlife. The Capuchin monks were the caretakers of the church and the crypt and what is known about the persons buried there has been found in the church archives and from oral tradition.

Inside the museum

Ferentillo is an interesting find in the hills of Umbria, if you ever have the pleasure of visiting make sure you take a few hikes in this scenic place, check out the remains of the castles, Rocca di Precetto (Pentagonal Tower) and Mattarella (the Bell Tower), and the Church of Santa Maria along with it's Renaissance art.

You tube video: Le mummie di ferentillo by wunderk (5:19 min):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-HdfayJuQg

Matterella, ruins of the Bell Tower