12/21/2005: Church with ornamental human bones

The Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic, is a small Christian chapel. Looks quite ordinary...



Except that the interior is entirely decorated with human bones.



Chandelier.



Coat-of-arms detail.

It's all from this fansite for the chapel which details the whole thing, including the fact that the raw material for it included "40,000 sets of human bones".

How do you say "Creepy" in Czech?

Utterly cool!

All those churches worrying about running out of graveyard space? Hint, hint...

Also, if you search on google you can find lots of other churches and chapels with similar decorating tastes. Just search for "capuchin church bones"

<a href="http://www.google.com/search?hs=NpY&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=capuchin+church+bones&btnG=Search"> Google Search</a>

That's the power of the IotD... I've never heard of this item before, but if I post it, a lurker will arrive within a half-hour to explain the whole thing.

(That's another way of saying, welcome Sam! Thanks.)

I would love to see that. Very cool.

Welcome to the Cellar, Samael.

I won't make any bones about it , but that is where the whole ball of wax is rolling.
Soon people will have to start buying land in desolate or geographically substandard ares to bury their dead. No more family plots. An error in planning.
Cremation has edged up in society from an alternative, and will most likely leap to the norm shortly.
Our entire species is getting lazier and lazier. Most people these days would prefer having ashes handy as opposed to a trip to the cemetary.
Anyway the bones in these images are creepy to me but they are placed with an artistic aire. I would like to visit and see this firsthand. The way the bones are integrated with metals and other material within theme is way cool to me (in the first page of UT's link).
Seems like there would be a lot of legal tape to wade through to display one's bones in public. The creepy side keeps creeping up on me.

What I wouldn't give to visit this place and carry along a pair of xylophone mallets.

I hope that they build their Christmastime Nativity out of bones, too...

I hope that they build their Christmastime Nativity out of bones, too...

Wow, Iv'e heard of churches that are popular but this is surely one that people are just dying to get in to! :p

La Danse Macabre performed daily.

Exactumundo !!!
Use what parts you can and cremate the rest !!!
Hold a small party/memorial service on a certin river ,
pop a beer and float my ashes down river in a good straw hat set on fire ,
ashes to ashes dust to dust , may your ashes enrich the earth you came from .

Our house is located in the Elverson Historic District (#25 on the architectural inventory). A couple generations of Mengel's lived here throughout the 18 and 1900's (scroll down).
Anyway, A few weeks ago I was getting packed for vacation the next morning, wearing sweats and a flannel... and also getting ready for an xmas party that night, so I'd had my hair put up earlier that day and was in a major rush. Someone knocked at the the door and I'm muttering to myself that they're gonna think I'm a nutcase when I answer. I open the door and two ladies greet me and apologize, because I'm gonna think they're nuts, but their father had recently died and they were just at his funeral service. Apparently one of his dying wishes was to be cremated, and to have his ashes spread in the yard of his family home, now my family home.
So they had a little service out in the yard and spread the old guy about my forsythia and cherry trees.

We discussed the Sedlec Ossuary before.

I think I can go to bed now that I finally scratched that itch at the back of my brain.

Ohio has just been added to my shit list.

As Woody Allen once said, scatter my ashes to the four winds... and get back the deposit on the urn.

For the funeral home employees.

When we were choosing a coffin for my Dad, we saw the heavy duty cardboard boxes and a beautiful knotty pine coffin that was put together with no metal. Well fitted joints with glue and dowels and if required they could add handles that would be removed before burning. It was pricey but a hell of a lot cheaper than a complete Viking ship.

I don't think my mom will let me burn her. She's a burier. There's an outside chance she'd be an eater, but well, I honestly think she'll end up being too tough.