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It's creepy and it's spooky, and you've got to go!
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Just near Kutna Hora is the town of Sedlec, with its famous ossuary, or depository for the bones of the dead.
The Ossuary at Sedlec is truly amazing and one of the lesser-known tourist sites in Central/Eastern Europe.
The history of the Ossuary begins in 1142 with the founding of a Cistercian monastery in what was then Bohemia. The monastery became popular after an abbot brought in some earth from Jerusalem to sprinkle on the graveyard. Thousands were dying because of the terrible plague epidemic, and because of the holy dirt, everyone wanted to be buried in the graveyard in Sedlec. A small chapel was built there in the 14th century, and it eventually became an ossuary. In 1870, a Czech woodcarver named Frantisek Rint arranged the bones to decorate the interior of the church because, the story says, the cemetery was filled and so many others wanted to be buried there.
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| To ease the crowding, the easiest solution was to move the bones into the chapel. Tourists who have seen pictures of the inside of the chapel may think they know what to expect; however, most are astounded at the reality of the bones in the small chapel. The imagination of Mr. Rint is amazing. The bones of 40,000 people have been used to decorate everything. There is a bone altar, huge bone bells about 15' wide each, a bone chandelier, bone crosses, bone chalices, and a coat of arms. The chandelier is made of at least one of every bone in the human body. Mr. Rint even signed his name and the date in bones! |
The chapel is extremely quiet as people stand in awe of what they are seeing. The arrangement of the bones almost look like lace, they hang so daintily. The cool dark atmosphere of the chapel only enhances the mood. It isn't hard to do what the tickets admonish and give "respekt" to the dead.
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