The hanged man, the hunchback Severino, Sor Aurelia and two Chinese. These are just some of the mummies that can be known in the Museum of Ferentillo. Ferentillo is in the province of Terni and is in a very particular position staying in the intersection of two rocky ridges that almost meet each other, closing the Nera Valley. The village develops in two parts: Mattarella and Precetto, placed on the two banks of the river Nera.
Precetto has a thirteenth-century urban structure and a well-extended fortification system: the crenellated walls running along the ridge of the mountain, and the mighty towers have been preserved along the centuries. The area expanding in the lower part, however, is more recent, dating back to the fifteenth century. Its reorganization was authorized by two men, Lorenzo and Francesco, of the noble family Cybo, who had planned the construction of some new churches throughout the territory. They established one of them had to be dedicated to Saint Stephan, and had to be in the area where a church of medieval origin (thirteenth century) had already been built. The old church was not demolished, but it was used as a base for the foundations of new buildings. The modified spaces made possible an alternative use of the church, which, incorporated by the new structure, was readapted to a sepulchral crypt of the upper church.
[edgtf_custom_font content_custom_font=”The crypt” custom_font_tag=”h2″ font_family=”” font_size=”20″ line_height=”” font_style=”normal” text_align=”left” font_weight=”” color=”#000000″ text_decoration=”underline” letter_spacing=””]
The space was filled with debris, in all probability waste materials coming from the stone used for the upper church. It modified the level of the previous floor. Twenty-four meters long, nine meters wide and two high, the crypt still features architectural and artistic elements dating back to the medieval church phase of the thirteenth century such as the ancient portal and the remains of the apse. From the sixteenth century onwards, all of corpses of Precetto were buried in this place until 1806 when the Napoleonic edict of Saint Cloud, Décret Impérial sur les Sépultures, forbade the burial inside the city walls and imposed the construction of extra-urban cemeteries. In addition the edict also ordered the exhumation of the bodies and so we noticed the perfect mummification of some of them.
[edgtf_custom_font content_custom_font=”The museum” custom_font_tag=”h2″ font_family=”” font_size=”20″ line_height=”” font_style=”normal” text_align=”left” font_weight=”” color=”#000000″ text_decoration=”underline” letter_spacing=””]
Since the nineteenth century the place has become famous for the collection of mummified bodies so it has stimulated the interest of numerous scholars and many visitors. Because of this great interest, in 1992 it was decided to give life to a new museum, using display cases for the conservation of the bodies and welcoming visitors with the singular engraving above the entrance door of the museum: «Today to me, tomorrow to you, I was what you are, you will be what I am. Think mortal that your end is this and thinks that this will be soon».
[edgtf_custom_font content_custom_font=”The mummies” custom_font_tag=”h2″ font_family=”” font_size=”20″ line_height=”” font_style=”normal” text_align=”left” font_weight=”” color=”#000000″ text_decoration=”underline” letter_spacing=””]
To date there are 21 mummies exhibited at the Museum among men, women and children. There are too,10 heads, 270 skulls, a still sealed coffin and two mummified birds (one of which is an eagle). Moreover, during the last cleaning and maintenance of the crypt, burials have been found in the room before it, maybe destined for the unbaptized. The particularity of the museum, in addition to the extraordinary state of preservation of the dead, lies in the fact that we can really know the mummy that we are facing. In fact, some of them reveal the story that continues to be handed down orally or can be found in the ecclesiastical archives.
[edgtf_custom_font content_custom_font=”The Chinese” custom_font_tag=”h2″ font_family=”” font_size=”20″ line_height=”” font_style=”normal” text_align=”left” font_weight=”” color=”#000000″ text_decoration=”underline” letter_spacing=””]
A particular reconstruction concerns the mummies of two Asians (recognizable by their characteristic physiognomy). The legends tell of a rich man and his bride, probably Chinese, on their honeymoon in Venice. «After a long and happy journey the two young people arrived in the Serenissima […] Being Catholic, the bride called Summer Flower, wanted to visit the city of San Pietro. So they came to Rome. There were a lot of people in the city: it was the extraordinary Holy Year (1750). Unfortunately the two young men were struck by a terrible disease: the cholera. They fled from the holy city and went into the Umbrian hinterland, perhaps to go to Triponzo where the thermal springs could hope for the miracle of healing. It was a very hot day. The symptoms of evil were evident in Summer Flower […] They were found at dawn on the steps of the church of Santo Stefano. Flower of Summer held tightly the small golden crucifix given to her by her bridegroom A-Tuan». The legend is supported by the presence of their clothes, in good condition until the 1970s. The lawyerA fun fact regards the body kept in the only still closed coffin in the crypt. It is a local lawyer who was stabbed several times, whose mummy is not exposed with respect to the descendants of the man still living and residing in Ferentillo. Even one of the assailants was killed during the murder, and his body is exposed in one of the museum display cases. «[…] The lawyer was sitting in his office still busy with the processing of some paperwork. Taken the light he hastened to open. He immediately recognized a friend of his. He had come to warn him that a flock was destroying his olive grove […] When they reached the crossroads with the path of the plain, suddenly there emerged two individuals from the great oak tree, who attacked them with a knife. The false and traitorous friend joined those and fell blindly. The lawyer, although he was caught off guard, as he was courageous and courageous, took from his pocket the knife, inseparable companion in those times, and began to defend himself vigorously. Struck to death by the three men, however, had the strength, before falling lifeless, to kill the traitor who now lies with him forever».
[edgtf_custom_font content_custom_font=”The greedy sir” custom_font_tag=”h2″ font_family=”” font_size=”20″ line_height=”” font_style=”normal” text_align=”left” font_weight=”” color=”#000000″ text_decoration=”underline” letter_spacing=””]
«[…] He ate everything and went crazy for those aniseed donuts that are distributed to the commoners on the anniversary of Sant’Antonio Abate […] It had become the Fable of the country. They all mocked him but not in his presence because they feared his wrath. Very rich, he could afford any extravagance and revenge […] In the evening, while the sir was intent on munching a nice turkey leg, knocked repeatedly at his door. She was a poor old woman, covered in a few rags begging for a piece of bread […] Sir Francesco shouted to the servants to drive her out. The woman, desperate and humiliated, with all the hatred raged against him: “[…] The day will come that your body will not stand up to the weight of the bread you ate and your mouth will no longer be able to eat it”. The anathema must have had its effect since the sir was struck by an incurable disease that deformed his mouth and preventing him from feeding, soon led him to death. There are also the mummies of a young woman who died in childbirth buried with the stillbirth, the one of Sora Aurelia, an old peasant woman with still intact clothes, a bell ringer, a hanged man and the hunchback Severino». Mummification In 1887 the Accademia dei Lincei published a detailed study on the curious phenomenon of mummification of bodies. The scholars Carlo Maggiorani and Aliprando Moriggia, university professors, supported by the chemist Vincenzo Latini, declared to be convinced that mummification was due to the type of soil rich in silicates of iron and alumina, of sulphate and nitrates of calcium of magnesium and ammonia and also to the ventilation of the room and to the presence on the skin of the mummies of micro-organisms which, by feeding on the decomposable materials of the corpses, dry them quickly. Subsequently the crypt ground was analyzed in an attempt to derive certain data to consolidate the hypotheses formulated on why the bodies were mummified, but the reliable reason has not been identified; however, attempts were made on the process of mummification with bodies of animals, which revealed the rapid process of mummification of the crypt soil. However, it seems probable that the cause of mummifying bodies can be a bacterium that dehydrates bodies.
Museum Hours:
1 APRILE – 30 SETTEMBRE Aperto tutti i giorni
Mattina: 10 – 13 Pomeriggio: 15 – 19
1 OTTOBRE – 31 OTTOBRE Aperto tutti i giorni
Mattina: 10 – 13 Pomeriggio: 15 -18
1 NOVEMBRE – 28 FEBBRAIO Aperto tutti i giorni
Mattina: 10 – 13 Pomeriggio: 15 – 17
1 MARZO – 31 MARZO Aperto tutti i giorni
Mattina: 10 -13 Pomeriggio: 15 -18
L’ingresso al museo è consentito fino a 15 minuti prima della chiusura.
INFORMAZIONI E PRENOTAZIONI tel: 328 6864226 — 335 6543008
e-mail: info@mummiediferentillo.it web: www.mummiediferentillo.it
Bibliography:
- Favetti, Ferentillo Segreta… Storia di un Principato…, Tipolito Visconti, Terni, 2005
- Santini, Guida di Terni e del ternano, Tipolitografia Petruzzi, Città di Castello, 1998
- Carlo Favetti e Annamaria Pennacchi, Le Mummie di Ferentillo, Edizioni Quattroemme, Ponte San Giovanni (PG), 1993
Sitography:
http://www.mummiediferentillo.it/mummie/
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_delle_mummie_di_Ferentillo
http://www.museiprovinciaterni.it/context_musei.jsp?ID_LINK=508&area=47
Alessandra Vittori
Latest posts by Alessandra Vittori (see all)
- Mummies’ house: the Museum of Ferentillo - May 22, 2018
- Benozzo Gozzoli, Master in Umbria - March 22, 2018
- Ghost Angelino’s House - January 11, 2018