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Inquisition-era prison getting rare tourist traffic

ROME, Italy (AP) — Tourists in Palermo next month will be able to see graffiti and poems scribbled on walls by prisoners during the Inquisition in the 17th and 18th centuries and visit a crypt of former prostitutes-turned nuns in a 16th-century convent.
The University of Palermo said Wednesday that these places of historical interest as well as artistic and scientific curiosities will be open to the public on the four weekends of October to mark its 200th anniversary.
Among the curiosities that will be able to be seen are the telescopes of Sicilian noble Prince Giulio Fabrizio Tomasi di Lampedusa, whose aristocratic life inspired the novel "The Gattopardo" ("The Leopard") which was later made into a film. They are displayed in the astronomical observatory in Palazzo Reale.
The former prostitutes, known as "repentite," or "the repentant women," embraced convent life. Their upkeep was paid for by a tax on prostitutes. Their crypt can be seen in the convent of Santa Maria la Grazia.
Visits to the cells where Inquisition prisoners were held will begin in Piazza Marina, a main square in the Sicilian capital.
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