A Church To Chill You To The Bone
- etickle1
- Jan 31, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 2, 2021
Image Courtesy of Pixabay
Location: Czech Republic (Czechia)
Built in 1870
The Sedlec Ossuary is considered to be the most popular tourist attraction in the country. Not because of beautiful scenery, glorious sunsets, and nature that extends for miles; but for the history it holds and the thousands upon thousands of decorative skeletons hanging from the ceiling.
While the Sedlec Ossuary might not hold even half of the number of human remains as the ever-popular Parisian Catacombs, the usage of these remains has left people baffled for decades. A deeper look into this haunting church’s history reveals just how it came to be the haunting phenomenon that it has become.
It all began in the 13th Century. The Abbot of the Sedlec Monastery ventured forth to Jerusalem and when he returned home to the Czech Republic, he brought back with him Holy soil from the Grave of the Lord. Though he did not want to keep such wealth to himself, so he took the soil to the Sedlec Cemetary and proceeded to spread this holy soil throughout the grounds. In doing so, making this the most popular place to bury the dead in the region. And once the Black Death swept through Europe and the Crusades left massive amounts of bloodshed in its wake, 40,000 unfortunate souls were buried in the soils of the Sedlec Cemetary.
Countless more souls became buried in this cemetery. So much so that the soils became overwhelmed. Remains had to be moved to the Ossuary below the adjoined church. Skeletons stacked atop each other in large pyramids. Thousands of bodies remained undisturbed until the late 19th century.
A woodcarver by the name of František (Francis) Rint was tasked with creating something beautiful out of the decaying remains that lied underneath the church by the Schwarzenberg family. His tasks even went so far as to include bleaching the remains to make everything created appear uniform and carving them to create macabrely beautiful decor for the church. Of these decorations the two most notable being the Schwarzenberg coat of arms (used to honor the family that hired him for this task), chalices made out of femurs, crosses made from hips, and haunting chandeliers that consist of every single bone in the human body (each used at least once).
Unfortunately during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, the church has remained closed for tours. However, when it opens again, you can tour this one of a kind macabre destination for less than 6USD per person (120 CZK). In the meantime, you can satisfy your dark need to tour this masterpiece via virtual tours completely free of charge. You can view the virtual tour at this link.
Though there is one thing that I find quite interesting. In my research, I couldn’t find anything regarding whether or not the church has been haunted by the souls once buried on the grounds. Has the holy soil from the Grave of the Lord calmed all potential spirits from haunting the place, or are the stories told too dark even for the internet to handle? There is one thing I do know. The bones are cleaned by hand using a toothbrush. In case anyone was curious as to how they had been kept so well over the centuries.
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