Skull with earsIn the center of Naples, in a web of narrow streets, hides the basilica of Santa Lucella a Libray, built in the early 14th century by Bartolomeo of Capua, an adviser to King Charles II of Anjou of Naples.
If you go down into the basement of the church, you'll find yourself in a gloomy hypogea, where the skulls of medieval Neapolitans are arranged on shelves. One of them has ears.
This unusual skull had been prayed for centuries: that its possessor - thanks to fervent prayers - would ascend from Purgatory (where it hypothetically was) to Paradise and respond from there with grace to those who prayed for it.
Ears played a special role in this sacrament - it was believed that the soul of the skull owner could better hear believers.
Who exactly belonged to the skull with the ears is not known.
Recent research showed that he had no famous saint, and nothing remarkable resident of Naples in the middle of the XVII century, who died probably during an outbreak of plague.
