Fontanelle Cemetery

The Fontanelle Cemetery occupies a network of tufa caves in Naples’s Sanità district. The cavities began as quarries; over time they became an ossuary for people whose remains could not be accommodated in the city’s church burial grounds. The site’s origin reaches back to the sixteenth century, while famine, epidemics, and the city’s burial pressures made it increasingly important. During the 1656 plague, many victims were buried in the caves. In 1764, the public-health committee formally assigned the site to receive the remains of poorer residents who had no space in church cemeteries.