Caravaggio's Tomb

Southern Tuscany


One of the greatest painters of the Renaissance, Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio, died in Porto Ercole on 18 July 1610 after a tempestuous and short life. In 2014, authorities 'found' his bones in a local crypt and DNA tested them to prove their authenticity. They then constructed this extremely strange tomb in the centre of town. Not everyone approved – many locals were shocked at the reliquary-like structure, which they deemed more suited to a saint than the sinner Caravaggio undoubtedly was.


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