Rosalia Lombardo

Rosalia Lombardo (13 December 1918 – 6 December 1920) was an Italian child whose exceptionally well-preserved embalmed body is displayed in the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo in Sicily. She died of bronchopneumonia, likely as a complication of the Spanish flu, one week before her 2nd birthday.

Following her death, her father, Mario Lombardo, commissioned the Palermo embalmer Alfredo Salafia to preserve her remains. Lombardo was one of the last people interred in the catacombs before burials there ceased. She died in Palermo on 6 December 1920, one week before her second birthday. Lombardo was then interred in the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo, where she was one of the last people admitted before burials there ceased. The embalming formula is described as "one part glycerin, one part formalin saturated with zinc sulfate and zinc chloride, and one part of an alcohol solution saturated with salicylic acid", and was entered into the body through a single-point injection, most likely into the femoral artery via a gravity injector. Researcher Rossella Lorenzi reported that the formalin was used to kill bacteria, the glycerin used to prevent desiccation, and the salicylic acid used to eliminate any fungi within the flesh, with the purpose of the zinc salts being petrifaction.

Conservation Lombardo's body is kept in a small chapel at the end of the catacomb's street and is encased in a glass covered coffin, placed on a wooden pedestal. A 2009 National Geographic photograph of Rosalia Lombardo shows the mummy is beginning to show signs of decomposition, most notably discoloration. Her body is starting to take on a yellow waxy skin texture. To address these issues, the mummy was moved to a drier spot in the catacombs, and her original coffin was placed in a hermetically sealed glass enclosure with nitrogen gas to prevent decay. The mummy remains one of the best preserved bodies in the catacombs.

Public interest The mummy has achieved further notoriety for a phenomenon in which her eyes appear to open and close several times a day, revealing her intact blue irises. In response to speculation about her moving eyelids, Piombino-Mascali stated that "It's an optical illusion produced by the light that filters through the side windows, which during the day is subject to change ... [her eyes] are not completely closed, and indeed they have never been".