The world’s most beautiful mummy…

Photo by Wikimedia Commons

Rosalia Lombardo was just 2 years old when she perished from the “flu” in 1920. Her father, General Lombardo, was so grief stricken that he reached out to notable embalmer, Alfredo Salafia. He had his beautiful lost child preserved as a sleeping angel, one of the last that was laid to rest in the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo in Sicily.

Little Rosalia rests upon a pedestal of marble, encased in a glass coffin in a tiny chapel near the end of the catacombs’ tour. She is just one of nearly 8,000 mummified men, women, virgins, children, priests, monks and professionals that line the walls with their remains. Some of the mummies are even set into action poses. A bit macabre you think?

You can visit the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo: