The other night my wife insisted we watch a three hour long series of shows on The Learning Channel dealing with mummies. The documentaries turned out to be a lot more interesting than I thought, including a fascinating look at The Ossuary in Sedlec.
I had never heard of this place before, but it is a chapel in Sedlec, Czech Republic, that is part of a monastery founded in the 12th century. Because the monastery abbot had went to Jerusalem and brought back dirt which he sprinkled over the grounds, people wanted to be buried in the graveyard connected with the monastery.
In the 14th century the Black Death hit this area and tens of thousands of people died. According to the story — and a lot of aspects about the history of the chapel are unclear — the graveyard quickly filled up. By the 19th century, with more people clamoring to be buried in the graveyard, the bones of the dead were moved into the chapel and a Czech woodcarver was hired to arrange the bones of upwards of 40,000 (!) people.
The result is delightfully macabre. The links below contain various pictures of the Ossuary, and one has a short documentary on the chapel. It is simultaneously amazing and revolting to see human bones arranged in this fashion. Certainly the fact that it is a popular tourist attraction is a bit disgusting (and that part of the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie was apparently filmed in the Ossuary), but I have to admit I’d pay the $1 to see it if I were ever to find myself in Czechoslovakia.
Links about The Ossuary in Sedlec:
- Eastern Europe for Visitors — The Ossuary in Sedlec
- Ossuary in Sedlec – Lots of pictures
- Ossuary 1970 – a short film in QuickTime about the Ossuary