Mummies unveiled in Krakow

photo - youtube

A unique microclimate beneath the Church of St. Kazimierz the Prince in Krakow's Old Town has allowed for the creation of catacombs where monks and laymen can be preserved intact for eternity.

Since the year 1667, close to a thousand people have been laid to rest in the crypts, the last person being interred in the 19th century.

However, in order to protect the volatile microclimate, visitors are only admitted once a year on 2 November, All Souls' Day.

Macabre tales abound in the crypts, with carefully labelled tags recounting the often tragic circumstances of a person's death.

Even today, the features of the dead are often strikingly clear.

The mummy of a man, originally interred with a sabre and a rifle, is described as being a victim of Napoleon's doomed 1812 march on Moscow. Having trudged back from Russia in the cruel winter of that year, the soldier sought refuge in Krakow, but soon perished.

Another mummy, in this case a lady wearing a wedding dress, is recorded as having been poisoned by her family after she pursued a marriage that was not to her parents' liking.

The catacombs are stacked with highly ornate coffins belonging to members of aristocratic clans. However, the monks themselves were mummified in a much more spartan fashion. Each monk was laid on the sandy ground in his habit, with the head typically typically supported by a block of wood.

Today, echoing the tradition of All Souls in Roman Catholic countries, lanterns will be lit in memory of the deceased. (nh/pg)