Museo de las Momias

The cemetery

The collection began when burial fees went unpaid

The mummies were exhumed from the Pantheon of Santa Paula municipal cemetery between 1865 and 1958, after annual burial fees were not renewed. Families kept above-ground niches by paying a yearly fee.

Discovery

In 1865 workers expected skeletons and found preserved bodies

Workers who began exhuming niches in 1865 expected skeletonized remains. Instead some bodies had been naturally mummified, with skin, hair and burial clothing intact. The first to be publicly displayed was the French physician Dr. Remigio Leroy.

The museum

The museum opened beside the cemetery in 1969

The collection was stored in a building above the cemetery before the museum was established in 1969. It holds 111 mummies, including men, women, children and infants. As of 2007, 59 were on public display.

111mummies held by the museum

Care

Studies found some were embalmed, and their care is disputed

The bodies were long regarded as natural mummification, but scientific studies found evidence that some were at least partially embalmed. The city government and Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History have disputed who is responsible for their conservation.