Little girl who died 100 years ago is said to be ‘most beautiful’ preserved person in the world

Agencies | Palermo                                                              

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The preserved body of a two-year-old girl, who died 100 years ago, has been dubbed as the 'world's most beautiful mummy.

Rosalia Lombardo passed away on December 2, 1920, right before her second birthday. She died due to a case of pneumonia, which experts say was likely caused by the Spanish flu pandemic from 1918 to 1920.

Her body was preserved and displayed at the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo in northern Sicily. It still remains there after 100 years.

Rosalia's body lies within a glass case filled with nitrogen to prevent deterioration of the body from environmental factors.

Capuchin Catacombs has become an attraction for tourists because Rosalia's body is remarkably well preserved even after a century. There are 8,000 other mummies in the Capuchin Catacombs. But none are as well preserved as Rosalia.

As no one really knows how her blond hair and skin are still fully intact inside the protective glass coffin, many theories have emerged over the years.

While some said the body is a fake wax replica, others circulated an urban legend that the place is haunted with claims that the Rosalia blinked at them. However, all such theories have been debunked through various tests carried out on the body for a History Channel documentary.

Scans and X-rays confirmed that Rosalia's skeletal structure and organs were intact after 100 years. Only her brain had shrunk 50 percent from its original size.

“It's an optical illusion produced by the light that filters through the side windows, which during the day is subject to change,” Dario Piombino-Mascali, a bioarchaeologist and scientific curator of the Capuchin Catacombs, had said in a statement back in 2014.

Due to the mystery surrounding her perfectly-preserved body, Rosalia became the subject of lore in Italy.

The facts of her embalming process were added in a manuscript found by Piombino-Mascali in 2009. It revealed that the 2-year-old was mummified by Alfredo Salafia, a Sicilian taxidermist, and embalmer.