Kutna Hora is a small town reachable by 60-minute train ride from Prague in the Czech Republic. After you leave the train station to the centre of town, you will walk through an area called Sedlec and pass a small church on your right-hand side. The church’s architecture is Gothic, with some Baroque elements. You would think that it is just an average old medieval gothic church until you walk inside.
The Sedlec Ossuary is also known as the Skeleton Church or the Church of Bones, for a very good reason. This chapel (or church) has been artistically decorated with the skeletal bones of between 40,000 to 70,000 people.
You may wonder where all the bones came from. Here’s a version of the story: “It all goes back to 1278 when the King of Bohemia sent Henry, an abbot of the Sedlec Cistercian Monastery, to Jerusalem. When the abbot came back he brought with him a jar of soil from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the place where Jesus was crucified at Golgotha. The soil became known as the “Holy Soil”, as was strewn over the Sedlec cemetery”.
A chapel is entirely decorated with the bones of over 40,000 (dead) people!
Soon the big European plague caused the death of many people, and many people went to Sedlec before their death. They came with the explicit desire to be buried in Sedlec, thus the cemetery there had to be expanded. In the 15th century, a Gothic church was built near the cemetery and its basement was used as an ossuary (a room in which the bones of dead people are placed).
To free up space in the cemetery, many bones were placed in this ossuary. The task of creating the ossuary was given to a half-blind monk who arranged the bones though mainly stacked them up in piles.
The bones remained here for centuries until 1870 when a Czech woodcarver named František Rint was appointed by the Schwarzenbergs, a powerful noble family who had purchased the property in the late 1700s, to “place the bones in order”. The result of this artistic man was impressively shocking. It is believed that Rint has been inspired by the skeletal decorations in some Italian crypts where he may have worked. Before arranging the bones, Rint disinfected all the bones and bleached them with chlorinated lime to give them a uniform appearance.
One of the most fascinating artistic works inside the Sedlec Ossuary is the 8-foot chandelier that hangs in the centre of the chapel. The immense chandelier is said to contain almost every bone a human being can grow. This chandelier is a memento mori, a reminder of death, intended to “encourage believers to consider their earthly fate and relationship with God”.
Another impressive artwork is the coat of arms of the Schwarzenberg family that is also made of human bones. The bottom right features a raven plucking the eye out of the head of a Turk (all constructed from bones, of course), which apparently commemorates the victory of Adolf Schwarzenberg over Ottoman forces in 1598.
While there are other macabre places to visit in Europe like the Paris Catacombes and the Killing Caves of Cambodia, the Sedlec Ossuary is really unique in nature.
Along one of the walls, look out for the artist’s signature written with bones.
Over many years the dampness of the underground site as well as the breaths of thousands of visitors had their toll on the bones. Since 2014 the bones have been in the process of renovation. As of 2019, the work was still in progress though the chapel remains open to visitors.
Visiting hours are from 8:00 to 18:00 (April to September), 9:00 to 17:00 October and March, and 9:00 to 12:00 and from 13:00 to 16:00 (November to February). The entrance fees: For adults 90 Czech Koronas (about $3.80 or 3.4 euros). For students and children, the entrance fee is only 60 CZK (about $2.50 or 2.3 euros (exchange rates of March 2020).
Sources: sedlecossuary.com and mentalfloss.com.
☛ Read more: Blog posts of Eastern Europe and Russia
Blog post and photos by Peter who has been travelling almost full-time since 2005 and has been to over 122 countries. He visited several countries, such as Japan, more than 20 times. Peter is Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of GlobeRovers Magazine, an independent travel magazine focused on intrepid destinations.