Thursday, April 3, 2008

catacombs in Italy



The catacombs are an underground series of tunnels where the dead were buried long ago. You may have read in history books that the early Christians use to meet in the catacombs to escape the Roman soldiers looking for them in an attemp to wipe out the Christians.

I was able to visit the catacombs as a young sailor. It was strange to see the bodies hung on the walls. Some of the bodies were dressed in prison uniform and still had the rope that was used to hang them around their necks. Others you could see were dressed in priest garb. I believe these priest came much later. The poor were stack as one would stack lumber, on shelfs, next to each other. Very close to each other. The rich that could afford a coffin were there also, on stands or on the floor. It is hard to imagine how many skeletons there were and how long the tunnels were. There were branchs off the main tunnel with rooms where more dead were laid to rest.

It was a strange place to visit, but I don't plan on a return visit.

2 comments:

Maren said...

My nephew went to Italy last year and visited that catacombs. It sounds strange.

Kevin and Brandi said...

Wow Lee that sounds so interesting, and yet pretty eerie.