Wednesday, June 13, 2007

June 13, 2007 HDR Thriller (friend)

antro (the cemetery of fontanelle). Uploaded by valpopando. Click on pic, see it in Flickr.

This one is both creepy and sad...
These photo are pretty good, but the place they are taken is the real reason for this post. The pictured cemetary is in Naples, Italy.
LOOK AT THE TOP PIC IN LARGE
and you just might make out what I am talking about in the trough along both walls.

and now THE BOTTOM PIC IN LARGE.

Here is the KICKER....a detailed view of WHAT IS ALONG THE WALLS and in many other places in this "cemetary".

Learn more about this place HERE and HERE.
But essentially here's the key part...

"used like an illicit cemetary, then used as a cemetary for the poor and under privileged, thereafter used as a cemetary for those suffering from a plague and finally used as a human remains site: these bones were either recovered in the numerous diggings around town and from thecleaning of the holygrounds within the churches.The canonical De Iorio tells that "...at the end of 1700s, all those that could economically afford it,wanted toe buried in a church, but there was no more space available in churches. So, the salmatari(undertakers), after the morning burial, hey would dig up the body late at night and place it in a bodybag. They would then carry it to the area of the Fontanelles (pictured abve), no longer in use at that time. As a resultof an unexpected flooding of one of these galleries, the corpses were exposed and dragged out in the open.The bones were then put back and secured behind wall, an altar was built soon after and the area remained destined as a final resting place for these remains."

I suppose that its just historical confirmation that it has always sucked to be poor, even in death.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not only are the photos stunning, but that's a very interesting little read there.

Poor people got no business like poor people.

paisley said...

wow... that is intense... i cannot believe you found it under the search word friends... amazing the things that exist in the same world with us and we have no clue....till you find them that is!!!!!!

Kim said...

very eerie HD
I imagine those poor people would have a very rich after life....

HDReader said...

Thanks all for the visits and the comments.

Needless to say I was astounded when I found this out. Maybe that church burial/reburial thing was common practice, but that is just over the top to me. Put this in a movie and nobody would believe it really happened, so truth really is stranger than fiction.

And well said, Kim.