The Crypts of St. Michan's Church

Today I want to share some photos and information from the trip I did in my home city of Dublin.

Not many people are familiar with this place - on the north side of the river Liffey, across the water from where in the Middle Ages merchants and traders did their business, there's an old church called Saint Michan's.

It's very old indeed, dates back to the 12th century.

The church itself is quirky and has this special atmosphere to it - of passing of life and death, religious focus, silence, stillness, abandonment...

But what's special about this church is that beneath the floor it houses crypts.

The vaults themselves have this unique microclimate, constant temperature, unchanging humidity with a hint of decay.

And of course, the mummies.

Those bodies just rest there in open vaults, oblivious to the outside world and resistant to changes in temperature, because they are sheltered within and have been there fo centuries. The conditions that have naturally formed in those vaults created an environment perfect for natural preservation of bodies and for embalming that occurred on its own, without special procedures like for instance they used in ancient Egypt.

There are dozens of coffins stacked in the crypts below the church.

I regret I wasn't there for Halloween, imagine the atmosphere in those vaults if you lit a candle or a torch...

If you like history and visit Dublin in Ireland some day, make sure to head down to St. Michan's Church!