Cimitero delle Fontanelle

The Fontanelle Cemetery is a unique site and a former ossuary located in a cave in the tuff hillside in the Materdei section of Naples. The cemetery contains the remains of an unspecified number of people, with estimates suggesting that it could be as many as 250,000 to 300,000 corpses. The site has a long history, dating back to the 16th century, and was used to collect the corpses of victims of the great plague of 1656. Over time, the cemetery became a place where the indigent dead were buried, and it was officially codified as such in the early 19th century. In 1872, the skeletal remains were disinterred and catalogued, and a cult of devotion to the remains of these unnamed dead developed in Naples. Today, the cemetery is a historical site that can be visited, and it offers a glimpse into the city's rich history and folklore