The Sedlec Ossuary

The Sedlec Ossuary is a Roman Catholic Chapel, located in a small Czech Republic village called  Sedlec. This bizarre chapel does not have any ghost stories to help with the scare factor (as far I am aware of). However it makes up for it with some serious creepy interior decorating. The Ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of over 60.000 people, whose bones have been used decorate this entire place.

Four gigantic bell-shaped mounds occupy the corners of the chapel. There’s an enormous chandelier which contains at least one of every bone in the human body. Other works include a large Schwarzenberg coat of arms, and the signature of Rint, also executed in bone, on the wall near the entrance.

Schwarzenberg coat-of-arms

That doesn’t look creepy at all…

The place looks so evil one would think there is horrifying story behind it. The truth however is not as scary as you would expect. In 1278, Henry, the abbot of the Cistercian monastery, was sent to the Holy Land. He returned with a small amount of soil and sprinkled it over the Sedlec cemetery. After word spread of this divine act- the cemetery became a desirable burial site throughout Central Europe.

It became so popular in fact that the bodies stacked up and something had to be done about the surplus of skeletons lying around… something bizarre! In 1870, František Rint, a wood-carver, was employed to put the bone heaps into order. The man was obviously brimming with creativity- and this is the macabre end result.