Along the historic Via Giulia in Rome, at the height of the Farnese Arch, a small church tells us how strong is our relationship with death. The Church of Santa Maria dell'Orazione e Morte is one of those places that, knowing the existence, you have to visit. That's the reason why you should trust a local tour guide of Rome!

To have an idea about how strong is the presence of the death here you should notice that on the facade, at the entrance, we find a marble skull with an underlying inscription that reads like this: "Hodie mihi, cras tibi" ("Today to me, tomorrow to you"). You are in front of the Church of Santa Maria del'Orazione e Morte (Oration and Death), built at the 1573 to give a first and official seat to the Brotherhood of Prayer and Death. What was the main purpose of the brotherhood?

At the time there were no public cemeteries services and often the corpses of missing people, swallowed up by the waves of the Tiber, tramps or beggars forgotten by all, remained on the street, without anyone bothering to give them just burial. Here is the purpose of the brotherhood: courageous people who took care of collecting the corpses, especially those transported from the Tiber, to give them a Christian and worthy burial. For this reason, over the centuries, the confraternity needed much more space, thus allowing that series of restorations and modernizations in the XVIII century with the new façade designed by Ferdinando Fuga and an extension of the cemetery and the oratory. Unfortunately, these last two elements were lost with the construction of the big travertine walls on the Tiber, that today protect Rome. The church, in addition to its curious origin, also hides something else.

First of all, inside we find valuable works such as the Crucifixion by Ciro Ferri, late painter of the XVII century very similar to Caravaggio, or a copy of the San Michele Arcangelo by Guido Reni (the originale version created a great scandal, as you can read here). But what really surprises is the underground crypt, where members of the brotherhood used to carry the bodies, ready for burial, or when they ran out of space. And today, in this underground place, the ineluctable presence of death is truly felt, thanks also to the more than 8000 corpses collected over the centuries, whose bones today decorate everything (walls, chandeliers or sculptures). In short it is a true ossuary which has its roots in the pious works of the willing who, to the detriment of everything and the diseases they could have taken, took care to give a renewed dignity to people who did not obtain it.

And now a last final curiosity: in the past, in Rome, it was customary to celebrate the Day of the Dead also through small theatrical performances that had places such as hospitals and cemeteries as background and scenography. To make the shows more mystical and plausible, wax statues (but sometimes real corpses) were used to represent Death, the Last Judgment or anything that might have to do with the dead. And even the pretty Church of Santa Maria dell'Orazione e Morte, with its cemetery, became one of the favorite places for those who staged these theatrical tragedies...