Capuchin Cemetery

Lonely Planet review

Long after memories of all the rest of Rome's interiors run together in an opulent blur, visitors vividly recall the particulars of the bizarre and macabre chapels of this cemetery, where the decorative elements - from the picture frames to the light fittings - are all made of human bones.

Between 1528 and 1870, the brown-clad Capuchin monks adorned this cemetery with the dried remains of their departed brothers. The message is appropriately pious: 'What you are now we used to be, what we are now you will be'. The effect is rather sensational.

There is an arch crafted from hundreds of skulls, vertebrae used as fleurs-de-lys, and light fixtures made of limb bones. The monks who guard the cemetery request a 'compulsory' donation, so have some small notes handy.

The Chiesa di Santa Maria della Concezione, above the cemetery, contains a gorgeous St Michael by Reni (in the first chapel to the right of the door) and Pietro da Cortona's St Paul's Sight Being Restored (first chapel on the left).