Santa Maria Della Concezione Dei Cappuccini Church

The crypt, or ossuary, now contains the remains 4,000 friars buried between 1500-1870, during which time the Roman Catholic Church permitted burial in and under churches. The underground crypt is divided into five chapels, lit only by dim natural light seeping in through cracks, and small fluorescent lamps. The crypt walls are decorated with the remains in elaborate fashion, making this crypt a macabre work art. Some the skeletons are intact and draped with Franciscan habits, but for the most part, individual bones are used to create elaborate ornamental designs.
The crypt originated at a period a rich and creative cult for their dead; great spiritual masters meditated and preached with a skull in hand.
A plaque in one the chapels reads, in three languages, "What you are now, we once were; what we are now, you shall be." This is a memento mori.