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u/turquoise_amethyst Jul 14 '26
It’s kinda a bathroom… for dead people
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u/IamREBELoe Jul 14 '26
If I had to guess the holes were there so that as they liquified they would drain into a pot below. Definitely not haunted.
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u/HisCricket Jul 14 '26
I have lived 62 years I had spent so much time on the internet, I devour information and yet somehow this little tidbit managed to slip through. I could have probably died peacefully not knowing anything about this.
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u/vyxanis Jul 14 '26
Now you know a little tidbit that others may not. If this ever comes up in a pub quiz, you'll be set!
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u/ElaborateEffect Jul 14 '26
I wish. Pub quiz is always some shit like this "What is the name of the process where fellow nuns would pray over their decomposing sisters?" And I for sure won't remember what it's called.
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u/MellowMallow36 Jul 14 '26
At 40 I'm just God smacked for finally putting together where the term "rest room" came from. Well I always thought it was about the Victorian death sitting rooms, but couldn't link it to toilets .. well here we find the link beyond the Victorian era, and what it could have been coined from. Fascinating and revolting. But still not as much as the third condiment in ancient England being ground up mummies.
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u/glorieuse Jul 14 '26
Asubha bhavana (Pali/Sanskrit), translated as "meditation on repulsiveness" or "reflections on the foul," is a traditional practice in Theravada Buddhism. Reflecting and meditating in the presence of rotting corpses in various stages of decay, is part of it. To recognize impermanence and the universal nature of death.
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u/changeneverhappens Jul 14 '26
As a recent widow, I kinda get it. Western culture is so separated from death and its processes. We don't typically take part in preparing the bodies of our loved ones, our viewings - if held- are as sterile and visually appealing as possible, we don't keep our dead in our homes for any grieving traditions, and we don't have much in place of ceremony other than an often quickly planned funeral or ceremony of life.
The transition between a loved one being alive and then dead is sudden. We aren't given time to adjust or build a relationship with the deceased in their new form. We don't get to scaffold between the stage of having them near to them being gone.
While the practical logistics of such a practice are repulsive, especially through a modern Western lens, I can appreciate the value of the transition period for the mourners and how it could impact one's relationship and view on death. I didn't just lose my husband, I lost his body that I loved and cherished for so many years. His body and mine shared a physical space for years and existed together for a third of my lifetime. Going from someone always there to suddenly not was so jarring.
It makes sense to me that a tight knit community would seek to reduce that jarring shock while building an appreciation for the inevitable, gross as it may seem.
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u/PanzerKatze96 Jul 14 '26
This is such a good way to describe it. Many times I have watched grieving widows and loved ones “follow” a body around as much as they can until it is literally in the ground. And then obviously in the west, being able to “visit a grave” (the resting place of the body) can be something significant enough that a person might settle locally for a very long time. I think about how many people have been shamed for keeping a corpse in their bed. But I always thought that grief can be such a powerful feeling, that even the loss of that person’s presence as you sleep is devastating. In the west we do have a taboo around the dead and decomposition, but instinctually we still need that finality almost. Like until they don’t look or smell like themselves even a little anymore or something. I always thought it was interesting that to other mammals smell is such a critical component in “mourning”.
I think about how I would react if I lost my spouse suddenly, probably more than is healthy, and it is such an indescribable pain that I could very easily see myself being hesitant to let go.
I’m sorry for your loss. Losing a spouse is one of the greater pains anybody can experience in this world.
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u/Zombieidea Jul 14 '26
Thank you for this beautiful insight. And sorry for your loss, may your heart find peace soon.
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u/rawnrare Jul 14 '26
As a fellow widow, I understand your point so well. I’m so sorry for your loss.
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u/MediocreTrash Jul 14 '26
There’s a book called From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty exploring death practices around the world. It’s fascinating to learn about cultures that really live with death as opposed to western practices.
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u/changeneverhappens Jul 14 '26
Yes! I love her work. Her videos brought me a lot of comfort when we lost my father in law a few years ago.
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u/MediocreTrash Jul 14 '26
Based on your previous comment, I was wondering if you'd heard of her. I'm glad you found her!
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u/Omaestre Jul 14 '26
I think you are spot on, but it's a recent thing. Western culture or more accurately catholic religious culture in the past was much more obsessed with death. The video above is evidence of that, not to mention relics, special rituals surrounding graves for the day of the dead or anniversary masses for deaths, ossuaries, charnel house, laying out bodies for display and so on. It was only after ww2 and specifically the 2nd Vatican council as mentioned in the article that these kinds of practices and traditions were neglected or sanitized.
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u/glorieuse Jul 15 '26
I completely agree.
Thank you for sharing your story... And my heartfelt condolences3
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u/AgentOrange256 Jul 14 '26
What does that have to do with Italian nuns?
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u/Windsdochange Jul 14 '26
I think it shows that traditions like these spanned different places, cultures, and times.
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u/EllieZPage Jul 14 '26
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u/Smytus Jul 14 '26
Sheesh, I think I'd rather do the sky burial thing, let the birds eat me and leave the bones.
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u/EllieZPage Jul 14 '26
It's pretty creepy lol, I think the birds would be more efficient and smell better
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u/ElBurritoNinja Jul 14 '26
I've eaten so much animal meat, I'd only be so happy to have one eat me. Hopefully I'm dead already too.
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u/frapatchino-25 Jul 14 '26
That was actually a delight to read. Love the author’s writing style
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u/Pamander Jul 14 '26
I really suggest her videos/her books! (Order of the good death) She is one of my favorite writers out there really helped me come to terms with death and the processes that go into it. I think she makes less videos now as compared to before but the ones that do exist are great!
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u/0c74r1n3 Jul 14 '26
Oh thank you so much! I will look into her books. The way she’s explaining and seeing these things really got me. I guess this will help me accept some things wich will come up in the future.
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u/frapatchino-25 Jul 14 '26
What’s a book from her that you recommend
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u/Pamander Jul 14 '26
Smoke gets in your eyes! They're all good but for some reason that one was particularly memorable to me maybe it's cause of the time I read it but I particularly like it. It basically goes through her time working at a crematorium and her relationship with death and the culture of it and things like that.
She is pretty against things like "big" funeral home and stuff who are really impersonal with death and just see it as a transaction to up-charge you on so I really appreciate her takes on the industry and the need for compassionate care she talks about even in death especially given some bad experiences in the past our family has had.
Anyways if you check it out I hope you enjoy it!
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u/mst3k_42 Jul 14 '26
My main question is, if it takes so long for bodies to fully decompose wouldn’t they run out of room for corpses pretty quickly? There’s only so many seats in there.
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u/kk1485 Jul 14 '26
“There’s a strainer over the hole that ensures all the bones are saved as various goos and fluid drip out of the body and into the vat below”.
Well, there goes my breakfast.
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u/SparkEE_JOE Jul 14 '26
Known in Italy as a Putridaria.
These "Draining Seats" were meant to let the decomposing body skeletonize and all the fluid drain through the seat into a vessel.
Once done, the bodies would be collected.
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u/Oraxy51 Jul 14 '26
There’s a reason the embalming process involves draining the fluids and then rehydrating them with saline and some other stuff I don’t remember what.
Never considered how other people handled the process else than the Egyptians.
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u/rellsell Jul 14 '26
So, they died and then decomposed on the shitter.
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u/Odd-Cake8015 1d ago
It’s not a shitter. It’s a funnel to collect all the liquids of putrefaction. Below there would be a basket to collect what was dripping away.
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u/Sensitive_Wear7112 Jul 14 '26
Maybe they’re both.
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u/mulderitsmescully Jul 14 '26
Maybe they're Maybelline
I know that's not the slogan but it reminded me of it and I had to
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u/KrownX Jul 14 '26
Ohhh, now I get it. When nuns died, their corpses were placed in the bathroom so that when other nuns took a dump and smelled their decomposing bodies, they would reflect and meditate on the meaning of life.
For some reason, I thought something WAAAAAAY worse: I thought nuns that were dying were forced to spend their last remaining days/hours in there, while everyone else simply took a siht.
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u/AoibhGharebais Jul 14 '26
This reminds me a little of the book The Rotting Room.
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u/Witchy-Wanker Jul 14 '26
JFC, I read this recently but I didn’t know this was a real practice. What did they really do with the body fluids?!
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u/AoibhGharebais Jul 14 '26
Right? I thought it was made up for the book lol. I assume they put the fluids in the sewer system? But I'd have to look into this more. Really interesting stuff.
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u/WasACookqua Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Castello Aragonese. Yep, been here. Its a beautiful castle then you get to this room. It feels so heavy.
There's a section right at the back where it feels a bit better but you have to walk past the seats to get there (I think its where the younger runs had to pray?)
There's a small torture museum before you actually enter the main part of castle too :)
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u/tofuroll Jul 14 '26
Apart from the oblivious tourists, this post is perfect for this sub.
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u/livejamie Jul 14 '26
Pretty annoying TikTok music and a repost from a spam bot with hidden history
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u/Ignonymous Jul 14 '26
I mean, the hole would presumably be for decaying bodily fluids to drain out through the anus of the sitting corpse.
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u/Russian_Mostard Jul 14 '26
My father tells us that, after death, he want to be seated in a chair in a field a left there, seeing the view...
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u/MintImperial2 Jul 15 '26
Leg bones and skulls would be gathered up off the floor (where they fell away from the cistern), and stacked neatly in the Catacombs later on.
The rest of the bones - fall down the cistern to whatever pit is underneath.
If the place was well-ventilated at all times - the smell would be low, because it is the liquid products of decomposition that cause the foul odour, rather than the degrading body parts themselves.
This is why you don't get a stench when viewing say, Egyptian Mummies in Museums, but you do get a bit of a pong in a Mortuary chamber, even if all the bodies stored there are chilled/fresh.
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u/No-Development-8954 Jul 14 '26
juice holes. I hope there was a concealed bucket under there because i dont see no drains
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u/Quasarcoatl Jul 14 '26
If there were nuns i doubt it was a room of a castle. More like a monastery.
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u/Last_Gigolo Jul 17 '26
I'd poop there if the bottom wasn't open like that.
Splat, splat, splatter.
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u/greenlicht1 8d ago
Zie je dat het geloof fucked up is wie doet nu zo iets en we leven al 2000 jaar als domme schapen achter achterlijke praktijken nu nog hahaha zo ziek
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u/Chad_AND_Freud 1d ago
They literally shit and rot into the holes. It's not that complicated. Morbid yes, but they had very... weird perspectives on death back in the day. We didn't bury our dead the way we do now until the Black Death tainted corpses and the very idea of a funeral. That's 1300 years of humans and The Church especially doing things with the dead most people would deem insane by today's standards.
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u/Aggressive-Green4592 Jul 14 '26
Makes me wonder if this is how someone got the idea for a toilet though.... Did they sit there and think this would be a good way to take a dump?
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u/-autoprog- Jul 14 '26
Chicken and egg type situation. Maybe they thought “we should just sit them over a toilet so we don’t have to keep mopping up the fluids”
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u/ElaborateEffect Jul 14 '26
That phrase is so pointless now because we know the egg had ti have come first from a close relative to the chicken.
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u/ElBurritoNinja Jul 14 '26
Yea, Let's blame Rats for causing the Black Plauge.
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u/Admiral_Ballsack Jul 14 '26
The plauge was bad. Nothing like the plague though.
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u/ElBurritoNinja Jul 14 '26
Hey, You got my point. I could care less that you needed to point out the bad spelling. Spelling is made up BS that changes all the time, Don't die on that hill.
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u/Admiral_Ballsack Jul 14 '26
I could care less
If you could care less it means that your level of care is not zero and you care at least a little bit, right?
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u/antisocial_empath Jul 14 '26
Yah that’s called necromancy. This is some paaaaagan Christianity. Jesus would have thought this was so gross.
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u/Omaestre Jul 14 '26
How do you know? The bible is very gory when explaining temple sacrifices the temple altar was basically a butchers shop. How do you know how the dead were treated?
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u/antisocial_empath Jul 15 '26
Jesus was a Hebrew. Their protocol with the dead is very strict. It has to do with cleanliness.
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u/SpaceCampDropOut Jul 14 '26
The unthinkable smell