376 Items Tagged

Memento Mori

Canneto sull'Oglio, Italy

Chiesa di Santa Croce detta "Dei Morti"

Photographs of the faces of the town's dead cover the walls of this small Italian church.

Combs, Arkansas

False Crypts of Brashears Cemetery

There are no bodies inside these stone coffins. And there never were.

Replica

London, England

Memento Mori Pendant

The Ranger’s House exhibits fine mementos collected by Sir Julius Werner during the course of his life, including this infamous pendant.

The Kiss of Death

Barcelona, Spain

'El Petó de la Mort' ('The Kiss of Death')

A cemetery in Barcelona's Poblenou district is home to this touching funerary statue, which depicts death in the form of a winged skeleton.

Galileo's Middle Finger

The Ultimate Guide to Scattered Body Parts

One way or another, these heads, shoulders, hands, and toes have lost their bodies.

Michelle Cassidy October 19, 2021

Averara Skeletons

Five painted skeletons are hiding behind a church in this tiny village in the Italian Alps.

Podcast: Hope Cemetery

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

The Podcast Team April 7, 2021

The top of a Strickland spoon.

The Macabre Mystery of a British Family's Skull-Topped Spoons

The 17th-century artifacts were likely christening gifts.

Sam O'Brien March 8, 2021

Permanently Closed

Berlin, Germany

Wunderkammer Olbricht at me Collectors Room

A remarkable cabinet of curiosities in an art space in the center of Berlin.

The Dance of Death fresco at Marienkirche.

Berlin, Germany

'The Dance of Death'

At one of Berlin’s oldest churches, visitors can place mosaic tiles to help restore a medieval mural.

objects of intrigue

Why Elite Romans Decorated Their Floors With Garbage

This mosaic is trash.

Amelia Soth November 22, 2019

'El Muro de los Muertos' ('The Wall of the Dead')

The corner walls of a primary school showcase a Mexican version of memento mori.

The original west gate.

Dundee, Scotland

The Howff Cemetery

People leave coins atop an unusual grave marker in one of Scotland's oldest burial grounds.

A book-and-skull, <em>memento-mori</em> cake.

These Made-to-Order Cakes Look Like Beautiful Nightmares

Meet English baker 'Annabel Lecter.'

Eric J. Wallace July 9, 2019

One of the tombstone skeletons.

Valletta, Malta

St. John’s Co-Cathedral Skeleton Tombstones

The floor of this spectacular Baroque sanctuary is covered in memento mori.

Thomas and Mary Howard.

Rudbaxton, Wales

Church of St. Michael

Eerily lifelike effigies stare at everyone who enters this sanctuary.

Skull and crossbones memento mori.

London, England

St. Nicholas Church Memento Mori

These morbid carvings remind churchgoers of the inevitability of death.

Skulls on the wooden door.

Chiesa del Purgatorio

Skulls and skeletons are omnipresent in this church dedicated to souls trapped in purgatory.