The Sedlec Ossuary

The Sedlec Ossuary, located in a small suburb of Kutna Hora in the Czech Republic, was built in the 14th century on the grounds of a noted cemetary to store the bones of roughly 40,000 people killed by the plague and various religious wars. At first the bones were simply stacked inside the church. But in 1870, a woodcarver named Frantisek Rint was charged with bringing order to the chaos. Rather than simply rearrange the bones, he used them to decorate the church and to fashion its furnishings. The large chandelier in the center of the chapel contains every bone in the human body. Rint’s signature, in bone, adorns one of the walls.
Who could be a better guide to this haunting church than Jan Svankmajer, the surrealist Czech filmmaker?
A similar bone church exists in Rome, the Santa Maria della Concezione de Cappuccini:

[Del.icio.us | Reddit | Digg]
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.











