The Morbidly Fascinating Page
This Month's Subject:
SEDLEC OSSUARY: The Bone Church
Outside of Kutna Hora in the Czech Republic is a church that is known as the Feast of All Souls (Not to mention Noche de Muertos): The Sedlec Ossuary. An ossuary is a place or a receptacle for the bones of the dead. Part of the Cemetery Church of All Souls, this small Roman Catholic chapel is estimated to contain the bones of between 40,000 and 70,000 people buried here since the middle ages.
What makes this even more remarkable is that the custodians of this ossuary have arranged bones to form the decorations and furnishings for the chapel. In 1870, František Rint, a woodcarver, was employed by the Schwarzenberg family to arrange the bones. His work has resulted in an eerie form of art that reminds us that life on earth is not forever.
The church is not made of bones – it is constructed of stone. The bones form the decorations and details.
