First off, a bit of history on this morbidly enchanting place, just forty-four miles east of Prague, Czech Republic.

The Cistercian church, the original structure pre-dating the actual ossuary, is located in Sedlec (a suburb to Kutna Hora) and was founded in the 1100s. In 1278, the Cistercian abbot Henry went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and brought back with him a handful of soil from Golgotha which he sprinkled over the Sedlec monastery’s cemetery. This caused the cemetery to now be considered sacred land throughout Central Europe and many wealthy people wanted to be buried there.

By 1318, the cemetery had been enlarged to accommodate the burial of over 30,000 bodies, which gave rise to the creation of the ossuary. After 1400, one of the abbots had the church of All-Saints erected in Gothic style in the center of the cemetery; the actual ossuary itself dates from 1511 when a half-blind monk was chosen to gather the bones from the old, destroyed graveyard and house them in a crypt that could fit more “residents”.

The bones were stored in the crypt until 1870 when a local woodcarver was hired to decorate the interior of the chapel with the remains of its human “guests” – approximately 40,000 sets of human bones! This craftsman, Frantisek Rindt, who was employed by the Duke of Schwarzenberg, has his coat-of-arms reconstructed in bones in the ossuary.

Although many may find this use of human remains to be disturbingly morbid, even many more (myself included) find this artistic homage to the dead a creative, unique, yet respectful way to honor those that desired to be buried here.

You can find much more information about this darkly fascinating location on the web, but join me now on a visual journey to the ossuary. Out of the hundreds of photos I took in Prague, these from the Bone Ossuary are among my favorites (what a surprise!).