Have you been to the Kostnice Ossuary in Kutna Hora? I was looking through my photos when I came upon the ones I took on a trip to Prague.
The Ossuary is in the basement in the Chapel of All Saints in Kutna Hora, about an hour outside Prague. 40,000 skeletons were used to make the very interesting and slightly macabre sculptures that fill the interior of the basement.
In 1278 the Cisterian abbot of Sedlec( a suburb of Kutna Hora) visited Palestine and the Holy Land. While there, he gathered some of the local soil, which he sprinkled on the grounds of his local cemetry on his return. After that everyone wanted to be buried there – when they were dead, of course.
Various wars and illnesses provided lots of material for Frantisek Rint, a woodcarver and artist who was employed in 1870 by the Schwartzenberg family to turn the bones into works of art. I will leave you to decide if he succeeded.
recognise anyone?
a very different chandelier
family Coat of Arms
What can I say?
very decorative
I didn’t find the ossuary particularly morbid or scary, just fascinating. You could spend hours wandering around the amazing sculptures. There are buses from Prague to Kutna Hora and the church is open every day except 24th and 25th December. The town is also quite interesting and worth spending a bit of time in. There is also a church with gorgeous stained glass windows if you would like to see something a little more uplifting.