Rosalia Lombardo

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Rosalia Lombardo was an Italian girl who died in 1920 at age 2. She was one of the very last persons to be placed in Capuchin catacombs of Palermo. Her remains are in a small glass topped coffin on a marble pedestal in a small room of the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo in Palermo, Italy.

Aside from a flat and somewhat unnatural skin tone Rosalia's body is remarkably well preserved; many say she appears to be sleeping, and this may have been the case for some time after her death, however it is quite obvious today she is deceased.

It is often claimed that Rosalia Lombardo was embalmed by Dr. Alfredo Salafia using a secret process which he never divulged before his death. It is difficult to believe that is the case as it is unlikely that Dr. Salafia developed the complex procedures and chemistry entirely independently of other experts in the field of preservation. Methods of embalming are generally developed over time by experimentation guided by new understandings of anatomy and chemistry. If Dr. Salafia was not in communication with other preservation experts and had in fact developed the method entirely independently he would likely have required multiple "subjects" to experiment on before achieving the quality seen with Rosalia Lombardo. It is more likely that Dr. Salafia used methods which he learned about privately from other embalmers and modified using his own medical knowledge. There is also no evidence that he did not educate others before his death since chemically preserved corpses are not particularly rare.