During the Middle Ages the area around Via Brolo was outside of the city walls and mainly included woodland that was used for cultivation and hunting by the then Archbishop. In 1145, following a request from an esteemed citizen, a hospital was built near the Santo Stefano Maggiore Church. A cemetery was then put in place to bury the casualties from the hospital, but as time went on the modest burial site became overwhelmed and a small ossuary was constructed to relocate the bones from the cemetery and the hospital. This led to the formation of San Bernardino alle Ossa which was followed by the creation of the church in 1269.
From the exterior there’s nothing to suggest there’s anything of interest or unusual about this typical Lombard Gothic church, but as you walk through the main entrance and down a short corridor you will discover the hauntingly beautiful ossuary chapel, which contains hundreds of human skulls and bones arranged in complex designs and patterns.
It is a truly astonishing artistic display of baroque design with the bones creating religious symbols such as crosses on the walls and decorative motifs that lead one’s eye up to the celling. The intricate design is thought to be the work of local monks and dates back to the time of the ossuary’s reconstruction in 1750, (which took place after the bell tower of the nearby Basilica di Santo Stefano Maggiore collapsed onto the vault due to a fire).
Some sources say that whilst one side of the ossuary holds the remains of charitable beings, the other side contains those who suffered violent deaths having been punished for their crimes.
The ceiling is decorated with magnificent frescoes by the Venetian painter Sebastiano Ricci. Titled “The Triumph of Souls in a Flight of Angels” the artwork acts as a symbolic piece depicting the journey into the afterlife. The contrast between the macabre lower half of the room and the enlightening frescoes creates a rare juxtaposition and a captivating visual example of memento mori.
The ossuary is free to visit and is a unique and quite unforgettable experience. So much so, that even King John V of Portugal was so taken by the sight that he built an exact copy in Evora, near Lisbon.
