Rosalia Lombardo – Sleeping Beauty of Palermo – How she was Embalmed

Rosalia Lombardo, a young Italian girl who died of pneumonia in 1920 and became famously known as the “Sleeping Beauty of Palermo” because her mummified body remains remarkably lifelike even today.

Rosalia Lombardo (December 13, 1918 – December 6, 1920) was an Italian toddler whose remarkably preserved body rests in the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo, Sicily. She passed away from bronchopneumonia—likely stemming from the Spanish flu—just a week before turning two.

Grieving her loss, her father, Mario Lombardo, hired renowned local embalmer Alfredo Salafia to treat her remains. As one of the final individuals officially interred in the catacombs before burials were halted, her startlingly lifelike appearance has turned her into the catacombs’ most famous resident and a key subject of research into early 20th-century preservation methods.

The remarkable preservation of Rosalia Lombardo was not the result of one magic chemical. It was a combination of dehydration, protein stabilization, disinfection, and sealing of tissues.

What Salafia reportedly used

A handwritten formula attributed to Alfredo Salafia, the embalmer who treated Rosalia, lists:

• Formalin — a solution containing formaldehyde
• Zinc salts
• Alcohol
• Glycerin
• Salicylic acid

The important chemistry is roughly as follows:

1. Formaldehyde — the most important chemical

After death, cells contain enzymes that begin autolysis—the body’s own enzymes digest its tissues. Bacteria then accelerate decomposition.

Formaldehyde reacts with proteins, particularly amino-acid side chains, creating cross-links between protein molecules.

In simplified terms:

protein + formaldehyde → cross-linked/stabilized proteins

This makes proteins much less susceptible to enzymatic breakdown.

That’s essentially the same fundamental chemistry behind modern formalin preservation used in anatomy and pathology.

2. Alcohol helped dry and disinfect the tissues

Alcohol can:

• kill or inhibit microorganisms,
• denature proteins,
• extract some water from tissues.

So it worked together with formaldehyde to slow decomposition.

But excessive dehydration would make a body look leathery and shrunken. That’s where another ingredient becomes particularly interesting.

3. Glycerin helped keep the skin soft

Glycerin (glycerol) is hygroscopic, meaning it attracts and holds water.

This is important because preservation isn’t simply about making a body completely dry. If all moisture is removed, skin can become hard, cracked and parchment-like.

Glycerin can help maintain a degree of softness and flexibility in tissues.

So there is an interesting balance:

alcohol → removes water
formaldehyde → stabilizes proteins
glycerin → retains some moisture

That combination can produce tissue that remains relatively supple rather than becoming completely dry.

4. Salicylic acid provided additional antimicrobial protection

Salicylic acid has antimicrobial properties and would have helped suppress organisms responsible for decomposition.

This was particularly useful because fungal growth can be a serious problem in preserved specimens.

5. Zinc salts are particularly interesting

Zinc compounds were used historically in embalming and preservation. Zinc can interact with proteins and cellular structures and may contribute to tissue stabilization and hardening.

The precise role of the zinc salt in Rosalia’s preservation isn’t completely established, so it would be misleading to say that zinc alone explains her extraordinary appearance.

Why does Rosalia still look so young?

There is an important distinction:

Her skin hasn’t remained biologically alive or unchanged.

Rather, the chemical treatment greatly slowed the processes that would normally destroy its structure.

The appearance results from several things happening simultaneously:

Formaldehyde
→ stabilizes structural proteins

Alcohol
→ disinfects + reduces water

Salicylic acid
→ inhibits microorganisms

Zinc
→ assists tissue preservation

Glycerin
→ helps prevent excessive drying

Controlled environment
→ reduces humidity, microbes, temperature fluctuations and other deterioration

Together, these preserve the physical architecture of the skin.

One fascinating point

Rosalia’s preservation is actually quite different from ancient Egyptian mummification.

The Egyptians primarily relied on natron to remove water from the body. Salafia’s approach was closer to chemical fixation—locking biological structures into a relatively stable state.

That’s why Rosalia can look remarkably different from a typical ancient Egyptian mummy: instead of becoming a completely dried, darkened body, her tissues retained much more of their original shape, volume and surface appearance.

There is also a fascinating mystery surrounding how Salafia injected the chemicals throughout Rosalia’s body and why her preservation was so much better than many other embalmed bodies from the same period.

The most interesting part is that Salafia apparently did not need to open Rosalia’s body and remove all her organs. His method was remarkably simple compared with ancient Egyptian mummification.

How the fluid reached the whole body

According to the CT study of Rosalia and Salafia’s handwritten notes, his technique involved a single injection, probably into the femoral artery, using a gravity-fed injector.

The basic idea was:

container of preservative
↓
gravity creates pressure
↓
femoral artery
↓
arterial blood-vessel network
↓
capillaries throughout the body
↓
tissues

The preservative would displace much of the blood and travel through the existing arterial system. Salafia apparently considered additional injections, cavity treatment and extensive organ removal unnecessary.

The Capuchin Catacombs’ own account says that Salafia drained the blood and replaced it with his preserving fluid, and later X-ray examination found Rosalia’s organs remarkably intact.

What was injected?

Salafia’s recovered formula was approximately:

• 1 part glycerin
• 1 part 40% formalin solution, saturated with zinc sulfate and zinc chloride
• 1 part alcohol solution, saturated with salicylic acid

Research on the original notes indicates that approximately 7 litres of fluid were used, although the exact historical quantities and interpretation of the original Italian notes have been debated.

Why this was so effective

Think of it as attacking decomposition from several directions simultaneously.

1. Formaldehyde — locks the tissues

Formaldehyde reacts with proteins and produces chemical cross-linking. This makes the proteins much less susceptible to the enzymes and microorganisms that normally destroy a corpse.

2. Alcohol — dehydration + antimicrobial action

Alcohol helps remove water and suppress microorganisms.

3. Salicylic acid — fights fungi

This provided additional protection against fungal decomposition.

4. Zinc salts — tissue stabilization

The zinc compounds contributed to preservation and tissue rigidity.

5. Glycerin — prevents excessive drying

This is particularly important for the appearance of the skin. Glycerin is hygroscopic and helps retain moisture, counteracting the extreme drying that would otherwise make skin hard and parchment-like.

So Salafia achieved an unusual balance:

kill microorganisms + chemically stabilize proteins + remove enough moisture + retain enough moisture to preserve the appearance.

But there was another trick

Salafia was also concerned with cosmetic appearance, not merely preventing decomposition.

His notes indicate that he sometimes treated the face with paraffin wax dissolved in ether. This could help maintain the fullness and rounded appearance of facial features.

That matters enormously in Rosalia’s case because we mainly see her face. The combination of preserved tissue underneath and cosmetic treatment of the face helped produce that extraordinary “sleeping child” appearance.

And Rosalia’s environment helped enormously

Her preservation wasn’t solely due to Salafia’s chemicals.

She was placed in a glass-covered coffin in the Capuchin Catacombs. Later, deterioration—including discoloration—was detected, and conservation measures included moving her to a drier location and placing the coffin inside a controlled, hermetically sealed enclosure with nitrogen to reduce further decay.

So her present appearance is really the result of three stages:

Salafia’s arterial embalming
→ long-term protected burial environment
→ modern conservation

One surprising fact

CT/X-ray examination found that Rosalia’s internal organs are remarkably preserved, rather than having been removed in the Egyptian fashion.

That’s what makes her case so fascinating: the body was essentially chemically stabilized from the inside through the vascular system rather than being extensively eviscerated and dried.

The 2013 whole-body CT study supports the historical account that Salafia’s method involved a single-point vascular injection, probably through the femoral artery using a gravity injector. The CT also showed remarkably preserved organs throughout the body.

1. The femoral artery is a major highway

The femoral artery is one of the body’s largest arteries. From the groin it continues into the pelvis and connects with the major arterial circulation.

In a living person, blood leaving the heart ultimately follows roughly:

heart → aorta → major arteries → smaller arteries → arterioles → capillaries

Salafia essentially used the reverse situation:

preservative → femoral artery → major arteries → smaller arteries → capillary beds

He didn’t need a separate injection into the head, arms and legs because the arterial network already branches throughout the body.

2. How could it get to the brain?

From the femoral artery, fluid can enter the large arterial circulation through the pelvic arteries and ultimately reach the aorta.

From the aorta, there are branches leading toward the head, including the vessels that ultimately supply the brain.

So, conceptually:

femoral artery
↓
pelvic/iliac arteries
↓
aorta
↓
arteries supplying the upper body
↓
carotid arteries
↓
brain

The important point is that Salafia wasn’t trying to push the liquid through solid tissue. He was filling the body’s pre-existing blood-vessel network.

3. What about the face and skin?

The carotid circulation branches extensively throughout the face.

Those arteries become progressively smaller:

carotid → facial arteries → smaller arteries → arterioles → capillaries

The skin has an enormous microscopic vascular network.

Therefore, once preservative entered the arterial system, it could distribute throughout the tissues supplied by those vessels.

This is one reason vascular embalming is so effective: instead of trying to inject preservative separately into hundreds of locations, you use the circulatory system as a distribution network.

4. And the fingers?

The same principle applies.

The arteries supplying the arm divide into smaller vessels and ultimately into the tiny vessels of the hands and fingers.

Conceptually:

aorta
↓
subclavian artery
↓
axillary artery
↓
brachial artery
↓
radial/ulnar arteries
↓
hand arteries
↓
digital arteries
↓
finger tissues

So a single injection point can theoretically distribute fluid to extremely distant parts of the body.

5. But there’s a big complication: the blood

This is actually the fascinating part.

In ordinary modern arterial embalming, the embalmer generally drains blood while replacing it with embalming fluid.

Salafia’s method was unusual because historical descriptions say that he didn’t need to drain the blood first. His method was described as a single injection of approximately 7 litres without the usual blood drainage, evisceration or multiple injections.

The injected fluid therefore had to displace and mix with blood already present in the vascular system.

Because the body was no longer circulating blood through a beating heart, this wasn’t normal physiological circulation. The fluid was being introduced under externally generated pressure.

6. Why could gravity provide enough pressure?

Salafia reportedly used a gravity injector.

Imagine a container positioned above the body:

reservoir
↓
tube
↓
femoral artery

The height difference creates hydrostatic pressure:

P = ρgh

where:

• P = pressure
• ρ = density of the liquid
• g = gravity
• h = height difference

So the higher the reservoir was placed, the greater the pressure available to push fluid into the arterial system.

He didn’t need a modern electric pump.

The process could therefore be relatively gentle and continuous.

7. Seven litres sounds enormous for a two-year-old

It does.

But remember that 7 litres was the amount of embalming solution, not the child’s blood volume.

Historical descriptions of Salafia’s method specify at least seven litres of preservative solution, with the reservoir kept filled so that air wouldn’t enter the system during injection.

The significance is that he wasn’t expecting seven litres to remain inside the blood vessels permanently.

The solution could:

• displace blood,
• enter tissues,
• diffuse through fluid spaces,
• become distributed throughout the vascular system,
• and eventually leave the vessels into surrounding tissues.

The objective was to get the preservative chemicals throughout the body, not to maintain seven litres of liquid inside the arteries.

8. How did the chemicals actually leave the blood vessels?

This is where the microscopic circulation matters.

The arteries eventually become capillaries.

Capillary walls are extremely thin. In living tissue, water and dissolved substances routinely move between blood and surrounding tissue.

After death, the normal physiological mechanisms are gone, but the tissues and vascular structures don’t instantly disappear. Chemical diffusion and movement through tissue spaces can still occur.

Therefore:

large artery
→ small artery
→ arteriole
→ capillary
→ surrounding tissue

The formaldehyde, alcohol, glycerin, salicylic acid and zinc-containing solution could therefore interact with tissues throughout the body.

9. What about the internal organs?

This is where the CT evidence becomes especially interesting.

The whole-body CT investigation found remarkable preservation of internal organs, including recognizable structures in the chest and abdomen. The investigators concluded that the preservation was consistent with an extremely effective embalming treatment.

However, there is an important qualification.

It is not certain that every organ was preserved solely by arterial injection.

The researchers considered that:

• intracranial and intrathoracic structures were probably treated primarily through the vascular system;
• abdominal organs may also have received external/cavity treatment.

So the popular statement that “seven litres went through one artery and perfectly preserved every organ” is an oversimplification.

10. Why Rosalia’s face is particularly extraordinary

There were probably two preservation mechanisms working together.

Inside the tissues:

Formalin
→ stabilizes proteins

Alcohol
→ antimicrobial + dehydrating effect

Salicylic acid
→ antifungal protection

Zinc salts
→ tissue stabilization

Glycerin
→ reduces excessive drying

On/around the face:

Salafia also described using paraffin wax dissolved in ether to help keep facial tissues plump and lifelike.

That combination is a major reason the face can appear much more “alive” than a typical naturally dried mummy.

The simplest way to visualize it

Think of the body as a huge tree:

                   BRAIN
│
carotids
│
┌──── AORTA ────┐
│                                       │
ARM │                            │ ARM
│                                      │
hand                           hand
│
───── pelvis ─────
│
FEMORAL ARTERY
↑
│
SALAFIA’S INJECTION

But the tree has millions of microscopic branches.

The femoral artery was essentially the entry point into the tree’s plumbing system.

That’s why one carefully chosen injection could potentially distribute preservative from the leg/pelvis to the brain, face, arms, hands, fingers, skin and internal organs.

And the really remarkable part is that Rosalia’s circulatory system was no longer functioning, yet Salafia could exploit its physical structure as a distribution network. The CT evidence shows that the result was indeed extraordinarily extensive preservation, although exactly how every part was treated cannot be reconstructed with certainty today.

Before preservation:

||||||||   collagen fibers
||||||||
||||||||

    ↓ formaldehyde

After fixation:

||||X||||
||X|||||
||||X||||

body
 ↓
remove moisture
 ↓
very dry tissues
 ↓
microorganisms cannot function
 ↓
mummified body

body
 ↓
vascular chemical treatment
 ↓
protein fixation
 ↓
controlled dehydration
 ↓
moisture retention
 ↓
preserved tissue structure