The Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora

All churches have a connection with the afterlife and a hint of what they become of us when we shuffle off with this mortal coil. But a few places of worship make them think between religion and death quite so apparent as the Cemetery Church Of All Saints in Sedlec, which is a suburb of Kutná Hora, right in the center of the Czech Republic. The chapel, also known as the Kostnice Ossuary Beinhaus, is decorated with the bones of an estimated 40,000 human skeletons. The bones have been arranged in all sorts of forms and furnishings. The vaults are framed by great gardens of human skulls. There was a chandelier that it said to contain at least one example of every single bone in the human body. There are coats of arms, literally.

How did this come about? It may look as if it's the legacy of some blood-thirsty medieval count and a mentor left behind by Vlad the Impaler berzerk. But the truth is a simple case of overcrowding. After 13th century abbot returned from the Holy Land and the soil from Golgotha, which is sprinkled over the cemetery, the site became the most desirable graveyard around. Many skeletons were exhumed to make room and the resulting pile of bones was eventually put to ornamental use by the monks. Today, Sedlec has turned it's most infamous place into a tourist destination. It even has a gift shop so that those of the—and bone up on actual history themselves.


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