The Church of Death

Walking Tours of Rome

Santa Maria dell' Orazione e Morte

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Via Giulia (one of Rome's smartest addresses) is home to a number of churches, but none is quite as arresting as Santa Maria dell' Orazione e Morte, whose façade abounds with references to death and dying.
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The church belonged to the Compagnia della Buona Morte (Company of the Good Death), a pious confraternity, set up in the 16th century, to collect the bodies of people who were found dead and discarded in the Campagna, the countryside outside Rome. The confraternity took it upon itself to provide the bodies with a Christian burial.

At one time, the church was connected to the river Tiber by three tunnels, which were used for storing bodies prior to burial. The walls and ceilings of the one surviving tunnel are decorated with fantastic arabesques of human bones.

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Memento Mori, Santa Maria dell' Orazione e Morte

Memento Mori, Santa Maria dell' Orazione e Morte