The Sedlec Ossuary is nothing spectacular on the outside. It is a small chapel in Sedlec, in the suburbs of Kutna Hora, in the Czech Republic. You would think that it is just an average old medieval Gothic church.
Thus, it is also known as the Church of Bones or the Bone Church.
One of the fascinating artistic works inside the Sedlec Ossuary is the big chandelier of bones in the center of the Church of Bones. The immense chandelier contains at least one of every human bone.
Sedlec Ossuary chandelier
Another impressive artwork is the coat of arms of the Schwarzenberg family, which is also made of human bones. While there are other macabre places to visit in Europe, like the Paris Catacombs, the Sedlec Ossuary is unique.
Sedlec Ossuary coat of arms.
You may wonder how all these bones were carved in a small chapel in the Czech Republic. It goes back to 1278 when the King of Bohemia sent the abbot of the Sedlec Cistercian Monastery to Jerusalem.
When the abbot returned, he brought a jar of soil from the Golgotha, known as the “Holy Soil.” Soon people from all over the place desired 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. The bones stayed there for centuries till 1870, when a woodcarver named Frantisek Rint was appointed to place the bones in order. The result was impressively shocking.
Finally, the Sedlec Ossuary may seem dreadful, but you will most likely not find it scary but peaceful while visiting it. Those 40.000 dead people wished to be buried in a holy place, so they went to Sedlec in the first place, and now their bones are right in the middle of the chapel.