Catholic Inquisition-era prison getting rare tourist traffic
Pastor Dale Morgan
Catholic Inquisition-era prison getting rare tourist traffic*
POSTED: 1541 GMT (2341 HKT), Oct 01, 2006
ROME, Italy (AP) -- Tourists in Palermo next month will be able to see
graffiti and poems scribbled on walls by prisoners during the Catholic
Inquisition in the 17th and 18th centuries and visit a crypt of former
prostitutes-turned nuns in a 16th-century convent.
The University of Palermo said Wednesday that these places of historical
interest as well as artistic and scientific curiosities will be open to
the public on the four weekends of October to mark its 200th anniversary.
Among the curiosities that will be able to be seen are the telescopes of
Sicilian noble Prince Giulio Fabrizio Tomasi di Lampedusa, whose
aristocratic life inspired the novel "The Gattopardo" ("The Leopard")
which was later made into a film. They are displayed in the astronomical
observatory in Palazzo Reale.
The former prostitutes, known as "repentite," or "the repentant women,"
embraced convent life. Their upkeep was paid for by a tax on
prostitutes. Their crypt can be seen in the convent of Santa Maria la
Grazia.
Visits to the cells where Inquisition prisoners were held will begin in
Piazza Marina, a main square in the Sicilian capital.