The Rome IndexPiazza Barberini & Capuchin Crypt
Bernini's Triton Fountain — and the most macabre attraction in Rome, one street away.
Piazza Barberini
A busy traffic hub redeemed by Bernini's Triton Fountain at its center — one of his most dynamic works, with four dolphins supporting a muscular sea god blowing water skyward, carved in 1642.
The Capuchin Crypt
Four crypts below Santa Maria della Concezione are decorated entirely with the bones of around 3,700 Capuchin monks — arranged into elaborate patterns of skulls, vertebrae and femurs. Morbid, extraordinary, and absolutely genuine. Small entry fee; photography not permitted inside.
The inscription
A sign at the entrance reads: "What you are now, we once were; what we are now, you shall be." It sets the tone perfectly for what follows.