Our Planet’s Landmarks Series #9
In July 2018, I was to visit the Czech Republic to speak about the 7 Deadly Sins of Travel Photography. Before my visit, I bought the Kindle edition of a book – Atlas Obscura. The foreword of the book claims it isn’t for travellers, but for explorers. Out of curiosity, I navigated to the Czech Republic section. It is there I found a reference to Sedlec Ossuary, also called the Bone Church. I found it weird, yet cool.
Soon after, I got the news I was in for the Fam trip called ‘It’s all about the castles’. I studied its itinerary. It was going to take me to Kutna Hora in Central Bohemia. This discovery made me jump with joy. A visit to the Sedlec Ossuary was on!
Amongst the travellers, Kutna Hora is more known for its two churches – St. Barbara’s and the Cathedral of Our Lady. These two churches are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. But, as you can feel, I was more excited about my visit to the town because of Sedlec Ossuary.
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Bone Church Kutna Hora Czech Republic
I was still four weeks away from my trip. But I couldn’t stop dreaming about my visit to this oddity called the Bone Church! Upon reading, I figured one Abbot Henry created the chaos in the 13th century. He brought in a handful of soil from Jerusalem. He then sprinkled it over a piece of land around the present-day Ossuary. That made that piece of land the holiest and most desirable all across Bohemia for burials.
But, as expected, that little area was not enough for burying Bohemia. So, after about 30,000 burials, they exhumed the bodies and housed them in a crypt to make way for newer inmates. And the place kept on getting more and more dead.
Something Needed to be Done
The situation was getting out of hand. The local authorities asked František Rint, a local woodcarver, to arrange the bones. He bleached the bones for a uniform look. He then created some stunning beauties. Like an elaborate bone chandelier, and the Schwarzenberg coat of arms.
These works of art got him the necessary go-ahead for arranging the rest of the bones around the Ossuary. He used the bones of between 40,000 and 70,000 bodies to create the decorations (!) of this unique yet macabre church.
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Today, over 200,000 people visit this attraction every year. That is more than the number of visitors to any other attraction in the
When you visit the
