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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

What Lies Below: Capuchin Monks and Necropoli of Tarquinia

After spending time in the beautiful Protestant Cemetery we headed to a different corner of the city to see how the Capuchin monks are interred at Santa Maria della Concezione. Here grotesque art lines the walls and ceilings. Human bones, those of devout former Capuchin monks, form the mosaics. But the effect, despite the material of their construction, while austere and solemnifying, is not at all repulsive. It was with great interest that we peered at each room, inside a rather unassuming looking building. They asked us not to take pictures, and we obliged, but you really have to see it for yourself anyway.

We then headed north out of Rome to visit the Necropoli of Tarquinia. We arrived in the late afternoon, and had the place nearly to ourselves. Tarquinia is the site of an Etruscan cemetery, where each of the tombs date from around the 6th and 7th centuries BC. Each tomb consists of a room carved out of the rock of the hill. a winding path leads from tomb to tomb, descend a set of steps through a little stucco entryway, and peer through glass into the rooms painted with nearly Roman figures. The quality and complexity of the murals vary with the rooms age, and show a variety of scenes from Etruscan life.



Before leaving we picked up a small bronze replica statue, like those many Etruscan works we had seen at museums throughout our trip, a memento of yet another culture which once inhabited this country. We returned to Rome for an early start on our last day in Italy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

excellent article. But I need more written

Anonymous said...

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