One of the sites that I like to show in my route is the so called Church of the Purgatory arc better known by the populace as Church of souls pezzentelle ..
Located in the heart of the oldest part of the city (via the Courts, or Decumano greater), the church is uno dei luoghi simbolo della Napoli "gotica" e misteriosa. Nell'ipogeo della chiesa è difatti allocato uno degli ossari più noti e risalenti della città partenopea e centro di pratiche cultuali in onore dei defunti o delle anime del Purgatorio.
L'ingresso della chiesa, rialzato rispetto al piano stradale, è raggiungibile tramite due scalinate laterali, al di sotto delle quali si apre una finestra munita di grata, che fornisce luce ed aria ai locali sottarrenei.
Ai lati della grata, ciascuno in corrispondenza di una rampa di scale, due teschi, adagiati sulle rispettive tibie come nella più classica iconografia funeraria, simboleggiano ad un tempo la destinazione funzionale del luogo e le anime del purganti, incutendo rispetto and awe even the most absent-minded tourists.
And indeed there are very few people, including the fascinating shadows addentratisi Via Courts, neglect to at least pause for a moment at this place dark and full of charm. The observer
closer then can not help but notice how the front grille local residents and women in particular, may not always be fresh flowers and votive candles, although the ossuary is out of use by at least '800 Most of the remains collected there has not even a name.
What may seem strange indeed to those who know the importance of the cult of the dead and the souls in Purgatory in the popular Neapolitan culture. It 's something complex to explain, something that brings us back to a time far beyond that of Christianity.
The souls of the dead in fact in the design Neapolitan powerfully affect the existence of the living and spiritual beings are seen as benign or, more rarely, malevolent, to honor and respect and where to go, about the same as you would a saint, get real with (healing from sickness or injury, safety for travelers, sailors, fishermen, military, etc.., wins the lottery or competitions etc...)
bones and the skull in particular, are precisely through material to make contact with these otherworldly entities, contact that often "produced" in forma del sogno, in cui l'anima appare al devoto rivelando la sua identità e chiedendo ulteriori preci e suffragi.
Da qui l'importanza degli ossari, in cui sono ammassati i resti di persone non identificate e/o di umili origini le cui anime sono più bisognose di "refrisco" ("arrefresca' l'anima re li muorti") ossia di preghiere per abbreviare il periodo di permanenza in Purgatorio.
In passato, ma pare ancora oggi, era molto radicata l'usanza di "adottare" un anima "pezzentella" ossia di scegliere un teschio e prendersene cura ed onorarlo onde ottenere la sospirata "grazia".
Ma il culto dei morti a Napoli non si ferma qui e questa tradizone ha dato vita a una serie di personaggi che in alcune zone sono ancora famosi and taken into account.
so-called "assisted" kind of shamans able to tap into a spiritual or otherworldly dream.
These people "touched" by the gift of divine or demonic origin is not clear, for "addivinare" lottery numbers, through visions or having a liaison with the souls in Purgatory.
The medium, in a trance, communicating more often than not directly the numbers but the content of a vision ('or mixed), which was then interpreted through the "face" and translated into playable combinations.
The visions were often induced by substances that alter states of consciousness, taken as a potion (called "struccomacchio" or "strucchiomacchio") or by fumigation.
According to popular tradition, the preparation of such substances, mainly female prerogative, was entrusted to old "and janare 'ngiarme" which he handed down the secret from generation to generation .. So Curious? do not believe me? I leave a treat .. and come and visit and see all this "mysterious" Napoli! ;-)
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