Don't bury our mummies! How Mexican town adopted forgotten mummified

These are the 12 mummified corpses which were unearthed in a neighbourhood of Mexico City – and promptly adopted as beloved citizens.

The remains lay undiscovered beneath a monastery in San Ángel after it was abandoned in 1861 and were only found again more than 50 years later.

But when a local friar implored the residents to rebury the corpses and lay them to rest, they refused.

ᴅᴇᴀᴅ loyal: These mummified corpses were found in the crypt of a 300-year-old monastery in Mexico, but legend tells the townsfolk adopted them as citizens and did not want them reburied. They remain on display

Macabre: The corpses were put in velvet-lined coffins in 1929 and placed in the crypt (pictured)

Slow death: The Catholic site was secularised under reform laws in 1857 and the crypt was sealed up

Legend tells the townsfolk had already adopted the bodies as citizens and felt they were an important part of the area.

So instead the gruesome mummies were placed in velvet-lined wooden and glᴀss caskets – where they have remained for 85 years.

Gruesome: The partially-mummified corpses remain a grim sight even after hundreds of years

The monastery school and chapel were founded in 1615 and were run by Carmelite monks.

In 1857 the site was secularised under Mexico’s Reform Laws, which were designed to chip away at the church’s power and led to the school being abandoned by 1861.

The bodies were rediscovered when a crypt under the Catholic college was opened again in 1917, but no decision was taken on them for another 12 years.

Elizabeth Harper, a lecturer at the Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn, New York, took these pH๏τos on a visit to the museum at Easter.

‘For those not scared off by their skeletal features, a closer look at the mummies allows a glimpse into their lives,’ she said.

‘These are clearly the bodies of well-to-do parishioners.

‘They wear cravats, vests and jackets. One woman even wears a jaunty hat with a bow.

‘Though dehydration has twisted their faces into grimaces, their bodies don’t show signs of trauma brought on by poverty and dangerous living conditions.

‘It’s fascinating to see them looking out from their velvet-lined coffins’.

The corpses were put on prominent display in 2012 after the monastery underwent an extensive renovation, becoming the Museo de El Carmen.

Ms Harper added: ‘The crypt was simply sealed up with its current set of ᴅᴇᴀᴅ parishioners inside.

Detail: Scholar Elizabeth Harper said the bodies were of well-to-do parishioners who wore expensive clothes

Hidden: The entrance of the crypt (left) and human skulls stowed away on a shelf in one of the stone walls

Religion: Mexico’s Reform Laws of 1857 led to the decline and closure of the Catholic school and chapel

‘They were forgotten until around 1917 when members of a revolutionary army from the South of Mexico raided the school.

‘The soldiers left the mummies intact and the crypt uncovered.

‘Within the next few years, the bodies were discovered yet again, this time by citizens of San Angel secretly exploring the decrepit school.

‘Word gradually got out and the mummies became well known around town.

‘According to legend, a Carmelite friar tried to convince the people of San Angel to rebury the mummies but the town refused on the grounds that they had already adopted them as citizens.

‘In 1929, the mummies were placed in their velvet-lined wood and glᴀss caskets that are still in use today.’

Scholar Elizabeth Harper said: ‘The crypt was simply sealed up with its ᴅᴇᴀᴅ parishioners inside. They were forgotten until around 1917 when members of a revolutionary army from the South of Mexico raided the school’