Sedlec Ossuary: A Church MADE OF BONES

[GilloD]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary

WHAT. Oh man. We're going in a few weeks. It's fucking real life Planescape.

Henry, the abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Sedlec, was sent to the Holy Land by King Otakar II of Bohemia in 1278. When he returned, he brought with him a small amount of earth he had removed from Golgotha and sprinkled it over the abbey cemetery. The word of this pious act soon spread and the cemetery in Sedlec became a desirable burial site throughout Central Europe. During the Black Death in the mid 14th century, and after the Hussite Wars in the early 15th century, many thousands of people were buried there and the cemetery had to be greatly enlarged.
Chandelier made of bones and skulls
Chandelier made of bones and skulls

Around 1400 a Gothic church was built in the center of the cemetery with a vaulted upper level and a lower chapel to be used as an ossuary for the mass graves unearthed during construction, or simply slated for abolition to make room for new burials. After 1511 the task of exhuming skeletons and stacking their bones in the chapel was, according to legend, given to a half-blind monk of the order.

Between 1703 and 1710 a new entrance was constructed to support the front wall, which was leaning outward, and the upper chapel was rebuilt. This work, in the Czech Baroque style, was designed by Jan Santini Aichel.
The Schwarzenberg coat-of-arms
The Schwarzenberg coat-of-arms

In 1870, František Rint, a woodcarver, was employed by the Schwarzenberg family to put the bone heaps into order. The macabre result of his effort speaks for itself. Four enormous bell-shaped mounds occupy the corners of the chapel. An enormous chandelier of bones, which contains at least one of every bone in the human body, hangs from the center of the nave with garlands of skulls draping the vaults. Other works include piers and monstrances flanking the altar, a large Schwarzenberg coat-of-arms, and the signature of Master Rint, also executed in bone, on the wall near the entrance.

[GilloD]

That chandalier is MADE OF BONES, people. Bones.

[MrAngryFace]

[Junpei the Tracer!]

Thats awesome

MAF did you see the Christmas episode? Booth did something nice!

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

[MrAngryFace]

booth does lots of things nice shut up

[brawndolicious]

aren't a lot of catacombs basically made out of bones?  effed up that somebody would construct that.  awesome though.

[GilloD]

Thats awesome

MAF did you see the Christmas episode? Booth did something nice!

I'll actually be close to it next month, Im going to try and make a stop. I promise pictures of Bone Church.

[TVC15]

That chandalier is MADE OF BONES, people. Bones.

It contains every bone in the human body, which is even more awesome.  I really want to go there.  It seems morbid beyond belief; a true shrine to the utter distinguished mentally-challenged of religion!  Also it is in a place called Kunta Hora, aka the awesomest and truest name ever, also a fitting prick on organized religion.

[MrAngryFace]

Theyre gonna put the whole CHURCH on trial!

[GilloD]

That chandalier is MADE OF BONES, people. Bones.

It contains every bone in the human body, which is even more awesome.  I really want to go there.  It seems morbid beyond belief; a true shrine to the utter distinguished mentally-challenged of religion!  Also it is in a place called Kunta Hora, aka the awesomest and truest name ever, also a fitting prick on organized religion.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6720847047250895045&q=sedlec+ossuary&total=7&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

Heres a creepz video. We modified our travel plans so it§s almost assured that we§ll be hitting up CREEPZ CYECH BONE CHURCH

[TVC15]

I wanted to hit it up whenever I finally go to Prague, but if I recall correctly, it's like an hour or so away from Prague, and not near anything else that particularly interesting, although I'd probably find just about anything interesting there.  I basically imagine the suburbs of Prague as being similar to the uncensored version of The Witcher.

[GilloD]

I wanted to hit it up whenever I finally go to Prague, but if I recall correctly, it's like an hour or so away from Prague, and not near anything else that particularly interesting, although I'd probably find just about anything interesting there.  I basically imagine the suburbs of Prague as being similar to the uncensored version of The Witcher.

It's about an hour out, but we're going from Brno to Prague and it's sort of in the middle. The train stops there, anyway, so we might as well.