TWO OSSUARIES FOUND UNDER PAVEMENT IN TEUTONIC COLLEGE

TWO OSSUARIES FOUND UNDER PAVEMENT IN TEUTONIC COLLEGE

Saturday, July 12, 2019: From interim Holy See Press Office Director Alessandro Gisotti

Following the preliminary investigations started on July 11 at the Campo Santo Teutonico, (Teutonic cemetery) investigations were carried out – both announced and documentary in nature – which showed that – as shown in the Pontifical Teutonic College records – in the 1960s and 1970s, work to enlarge the College were carried out. At that time the work involved the entire cemetery area and the building of the Teutonic College.

Since it was therefore possible that the remains of the two Princesses* had been moved to another suitable place in the Campo Santo, the consequent verifications have been carried out with skilled workers to ascertain the situation of the rooms adjacent to the tombs. These inspections led to the identification of two ossuaries placed under the pavement of an area inside the Pontifical Teutonic College, closed by a trap door. These ossuaries were immediately sealed for subsequent examination and detection of the bone materials lying therein, always within the framework and with the methods required by the preliminary activities.

The Office of the Promoter of Justice of the Tribunal of the State of the Vatican City, in the person of the Promoter Prof. Gian Piero Milano and his Deputy Prof. Alessandro Diddi, has therefore arranged, with a special provision, that these operations take place in the presence of the experts of the Office and those appointed by the Orlandi Family, as well as the specialized personnel of the Gendarmerie Corps and the same workers already employed. The resumption of the survey activities was set for Saturday, July 20, at 9.00.

* “Two Princesses” refers to Princess Sophie von Hohenlohe and Princess Carlotta Federica of Mecklemburg whose tombs in the Teutonic cemetery were opened July 11 and no remains or bones or funerary urns were found.