Chiesa Museo di Santa Luciella ai Librai

This guide to the Chiesa Museo di Santa Luciella ai Librai in Naples follows the cult of the anime pezzentelle, the beggar souls, whose nameless skulls were adopted from communal pits by locals seeking company for a soul in purgatory. It centers on one skull in particular, known locally as o teschio ca recchie, and the people who came to whisper requests into its ear-like cartilage. Along the way you'll hear how the chapel itself was founded in 1327 and later rebuilt as the stonecutters' guild church, then sealed shut for thirty-five years after the 1980 earthquake. Look down into the hypogeum, where the skulls still sit arranged on their shelves.