As Ricardo mentioned in one of his previous posts, for some reason, most people end up visiting at least one church in their travels around Europe, no matter what their own personal religious affiliation may be – it’s just part of the history, so you have to see one or two. But after a while if it’s not a famous one, you start feeling like you’re seeing the same basic things in all of them – oh there’s Jesus on the cross, oh there’s some stained glass, oh and Mary of course, and an altar, and maybe some pews…and if you’re lucky there’s a crypt! But the Kostnice Sedlec (or the Seldec Ossuary) in the city of Kutná Hora is definitely not like any other church…
From the outside, it looks like any other Gothic church, but inside lie somewhere between 40,000 and 70,000 human skeletons, dismantled and acting as morbid interior decorations!
Kostnice Sedlec - A chandelier made from every bone in the human body
The history of the ossuary states that in 1278, an abbot returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and brought back some soil with him, which he proceeded to sprinkle on the graves of the abbey’s cemetery, turning it into a very popular place to be buried for the elite of the area. But then the plague hit in the mid-1300s, and the cemetery was flooded with bodies, so the cemetery had to be expanded. In 1400, a Gothic church was built on site, with underground chapel to house all the skeletons of the bodies that were inevitably unearthed during the construction.
Kostnice Sedlec - The church from outside in the cemetery
It wasn’t until 1870 that the bones were placed as they are today, by a woodcarver named František Rint. He made real art out of something most people might consider disgusting or morbid, and maybe even offensive to the dead – he arranged their bones into designs, such as the coat of arms of the noble family that commissioned his work, a crown, a chandelier containing at least one of each bone in the body, pyramid stacks of skulls, and even the carver’s signature, written, of course, in bones.
Kostnice Sedlec - Pyramids of skulls and bones
The one thing I can say about my own visit is that for some reason it wasn’t as creepy as it sounds. Maybe I’ve been scarred by Disneyland and thought they weren’t real. Maybe I just didn’t let myself believe they were real. Or maybe it was just bones and nothing else to me. I’m not really sure what it was, but I just found the place interesting and unique at best, and weird at worst. So, don’t freak out too much.
Kostnice Seldec - The coat-of-arms of the house of Schwarzenberg
Like I said, it’s pretty unique and strange and it’s kind of legendary, so if you’re going to be in Prague, why miss it? It has even made its way into pop culture references, including the final scene of Adaptation (according to Wikipedia; I don’t remember it, but if you do, post the quote or a clip in the comments!). So, if nothing else, maybe someday if the ossuary comes up in conversation, you can say “Oh, I’ve been there!” nonchalantly, and tell its history as an anecdote and seem all “cool.”
Kostnice Sedlec - A chalice made of bones
I would recommend taking the one-hour train ride out to the small town of Kutná Hora just to see this place (the green landscape is also very enjoyable on the way, and almost worth the ride in itself). Direct trains run from the beautiful Hlavní Nadraží (main station) every two hours.
Kostnice Sedlec - Nice landscape on the train ride to Kutná Hora
Kostnice Sedlec
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Kutná Hora
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Thanks for posting this! I was just talking with a friend about it a couple days ago and neither of us could remember exactly where it was (haven’t been there… Yet!)
this place is just creepy, the guy was mad… who the hell thinks of using bones for this!!!
He thought about using placentas at first, but he had a hard time molding them. Bones turned out to be a better material