Esoteric Naples - part 1

The church, built in 1616, is recognizable from the outside by the bronze skulls with crossbones. For the Neapolitan people this church is linked to worship of pezzentelle. These represent the souls of departed who are in the Purgatory waiting for judgment.

Tradition has it that: through prayer to the remains of some unknown dead the prayer may relieve the suffering of that dead person and, at the same time, draw benefits from their protection too.

Inside a tuff quarry in the Rione Sanità in Naples there is the Fontanelle cemetery.

The name comes from the presence, in ancient times, of an inside source of water.

The cemetery houses the remains of the great plague’s victims of the 1656 and of the cholera of 1836.

Inside there are, according to an estimate, about 40,000 remains. The rite of the capuzzelle is linked to this place, which provides for the adoption of the skull of one of the dead without identity.

This was washed and placed in one wooden or glass case surrounded by candles and rosaries. The dead, as well as for the “rite of pezzentelle”, they gave a grace to the devotee as a consideration for having alleviated the pains of the soul in Purgatory.