Cesare Borgia Reburied after 500 Years

In the 500 years since the death of Cesare Borgia, his bones have not exactly rested in peace:

Like Cesare himself, whose violent life came to a violent end at 32, the tomb was not long for this world. In 1527, a touring bishop of Calahorra. whose family had long been persecuted by Rome's ruthless Borgias, caught sight of it and howled at the outrage of such a sinner as Cesare being buried in church ground. The sarcophagus was demolished forthwith. The remains of Cesare Borgia, illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI and himself a cardinal at 18, an accomplished murderer at 25, and military conqueror of a good part of Italy at 27, were carried into the street and buried beneath the cobblestones and the dung of passing cattle. For 400 years the villagers of Viana avoided the unmarked grave, particularly on the night of March 11, when Cesare's ghost is said to be abroad and thirsty for vengeance. For generations the city fathers of Viana urged Cesare's reburial inside the church; for generations the priests of Viana resisted them.

Now, at last, his bones have been reburied in consecrated ground.

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