Kostnice v Sedlci - SPOOKY!

The Sedlec Ossuary, also known as the Church of Bones, is located in a suburb of Kutná Hora, Czech Republic. It takes around 15-20 minutes from the main station by a walk. 

The history of Kutná Hora, located in Central Bohemia, dated back to 1142 with the settlement of Sedlec Abbey which is the first Cistercian monastery in Bohemia. It was brought from the Imperial immediate Cistercian Waldsassen Abbey. The Sedlec Ossuary is a part of the former Sedlec Abbey.

In1995 the city center is listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site. The ossuary is among the most visited tourist attractions of the Czech Republic - attracting over 200,000 visitors annually.

I fully understand its popularity as soon as I stepped in a small Roman Catholic chapel located beneath the cemetery of all Saints.

Close to the entrance, bone chalices are displayed on both sides of stairs.

Bone chalice on the left

The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, whose bones have, in many cases, been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel. The bone decorations were made by Czech carpenter, František Rint, who was employed by the  Schwarzenberg family in 1870.

Schwarzenberg Family coat-of-arms

Enlarged front view of above image

You may wonder why a myriad of human bones was there?

It is very symbolic that Sedlec abbey cemetery became a desirable burial site throughout Central Europe because of the fact that, in 1278, Henry, abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Sedlec, went to the Holy Land, returned with a small amount of earth he had removed from "Golgotha (=skull)" and sprinkled it over the abbey cemetery...

As a result of the devastating pandemic of the Black Death (Great Plague) in the mid 14th century and the following Hussite Wars in the early 15th century, many thousands were buried in the abbey cemetery. The cemetery had to be expanded to accommodate them.

Around 1400, a Gothic church was built in the center of the cemetery with a vaulted upper level and a lower chapel to be used as an ossuary for the mass graves unearthed during construction, or simply slated for demolition to make room for new burials... Well, then, such bones from approximately 10,000 were showcased.

Chandelier made of skulls and bones

The most eye-catching decoration in the vault is probably the enormous chandelier of bones that contains at least one of every bone in the human body. Beneath it lie four bell-shaped mounds that also draw your attention.

It was worth visiting there!