The town’s name is Venzone, and among its claims to fame are a collection of mummified remains that date back as far as the 14th century, when a time of plague led to some bodies being kept in a church basement, where they mummified naturally. No one knows for certain why these bodies became mummified, though speculation centers on the presence of limestone and certain fungi in the basement.

But what is particularly interesting is not just that these mummies existed, but how the local townsfolk regarded them. Rather than being freaked out by these figures that would become horror movie staples, the townsfolk decided to celebrate the mummies as a connection to their own ancestry.

Here’s what the website Weird Italy had to say about the mummies of Venzone:

The residents thought that God had sent their forefathers to guard the village while still living (since they were unaware of the term “mummy” at the time). Then the locals wished the mummies luck and begged for assistance with any difficulties. As the village’s elders, the mummies were accorded excellent treatment. And this custom persisted up until 1950. The townspeople had to value the mummies as their forefathers.

The photos by LIFE’s Jack Birns capture the warm relations between the townsfolk and their mummified ancestors as they pose for photos together. Birns also photographed a museum where some of the mummies were on display. The ancestors are no longer paraded around town like they once were, but the museum remains open today, with five of the mummies available for viewing.

View of the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle and the village of Venzone in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, September 1950.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A man posed for a portrait with one of the mummified bodies displayed in the Cemetery Chapel of Saint Michael on the grounds of the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, September 1950.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Locals in Venzone, Italy, 1950, pose with the mummified bodies that had been found years before in the crypt of a church there.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A local woman held up one of the natural mummies found in the crypts under the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, September 1950. The mummified bodies date from 1348 to 1881.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A local woman held up one of the natural mummies found in the crypts under the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, September 1950. The mummified bodies date from 1348 to 1881.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A man in Venzone, Italy, 1950, poses with a mummified body, one of many found in the crypt of the local church.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A priest held up one of the natural mummies found in the crypts under the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, September 1950. The mummified bodies date from 1348 to 1881.

Venzonea Skeletons

The townspeople of Venzone, Italy, posed with their mummified ancestors, 1950.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Local boys carried the natural mummies found in the crypts under the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, back into the crypt museum, September 1950. The mummified bodies date from 1348 to 1881.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Monsignor Simeone Guglielmi stood above the opening to one of the burial vaults under the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, September 1950. When the crypts were being relocated, the citizens of Venzone discovered that several of the bodies interred there had been naturally mummified.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The museum inside of the rotunda of Saint Michael displayed the natural mummies found in the crypts beneath the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, September 1950. The mummified bodies date from 1348 to 1881.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Mysterious Italy: The Mummies of Venzone appeared first on LIFE.

LIFE’s biggest Bangkok photo shoot, and the one which supplied most of the images in this story, was done by Dmitri Kessel in 1950, for a story that ran in a 1951 issue of the magazine devoted entirely to the wonders of Asia.

In that issue LIFE declared Bangkok “the most impressive Buddhist city in all the world.” Here’s that declaration in its fuller context, as part of a larger ode of praise:

The city is laced by placid canals on which housewives ride in sampans to market, scented in perfume, which the Siamese love, and lulled by the endless soft tinkling of tiny silver bells that swing from the ornate eaves of the temples. The streets swarm with yellow-robed priests.

All things in Bangkok—the temples, bells, priests and people—combine in honoring the Lord Buddha, and they make Bangkok the most impressive Buddhist city in all the world. Its serenity, almost unique in Asia’s cities now, is rooted in that religion, and because of it, Bangkok is the one city that still fulfills the most romantic fairytale dreams of the Orient. It is Buddhism’s remarkable monuments that seem to lift Bangkok up from its plain into a never-never-sky that even the most unimpressionable Westerner might think was heaven’s own curtain.

Kessel’s photographs do show Buddhist shrines, and that is what the magazine emphasized in its coverage, but he also captured everyday street scenes as his eye wandered. One of the most striking images was taken on the rural outskirts of the city, and shows local farm girls gathered underneath a billboard for Coca-Cola.

LIFE’s other ventures to Bangkok include a shoot by Howard Sochurek for a 1955 story headlined “The Path of Buddhism.”

And in 1948 Jack Birns went to Bangkok to document the combat sport known as Muay Thai. Birns’ photos did have a Buddhist element, as he captured fighters praying in the ring before going at each other. Today the sport is more familiar to Westerners, owing to the popularity of mixed martial arts and also the use of Muay Thai training in workout routines. But back in 1948 LIFE presented the sport as an exotic oddity. The magazine’s story concluded “If at the end of three five-minute rounds both principals have managed to avoid hospitalization they often embrace, possibly because they are relieved that the ordeal is over.”

A billboard on the outskirts of Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Temple of Emerald Buddha in the center of Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The inner courtyard near Buddhitst shrine in Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Buddha in the caves of Phetchaburi, south of Bangkok, was the destination of many pilgrimages, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ruins of the 37-foot Buddha in Bangkok, 1950.

Dmirtri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In Bangkok a man sold melons in a floating market, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fishing in canal near Don Mueang airport, which serves Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Farm girls going fishing in a canal near Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Chinese dyers with their cotton material hanging in the yards, Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A mother gave her baby a bath in Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Chinese graveyard in center of Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Arann Reongchai (left) and Prasong Chaimeeboon during a Muay Thai boxing match, 1948.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The ref counts out a competitor in a Muay Thai match, Bangkok, 1948.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Monks begging for food at dawn on main thoroughfare of Bangkok, 1954.

Howard Sochurek/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Monks walking outside a Buddhist temple in Bangkok, 1954.

Howard Sochurek/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A billboard in Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Billboard advertising in Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cockfighting in Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A canal vendor sold bean sprouts in Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A water buffalo, Bangkok, 1950.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Bangkok: “The Most Impressive Buddhist City in All the World.” appeared first on LIFE.