Everything about The Sedlec Ossuary totally explained
The
Sedlec Ossuary (
Czech:
kostnice Sedlec) is a small
Roman Catholic chapel, located beneath the
Cemetery Church of All Saints (Czech:
Hřbitovní kostel Všech Svatých) in
Sedlec, a suburb of
Kutná Hora in the
Czech Republic. The
ossuary contains approximately 40,000-70,000 human
skeletons which have been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.
History
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'd 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.
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.
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.
In media
In
1970 the centenary of Rint's contributions, Czech filmmaker
Jan Švankmajer, was commissioned to document the ossuary. The result was a 10 minute long frantic-cut nightmare of skeletal images overdubbed with an actual tour-guide's neutral voice narration. This version was initially banned by the Czech Communist authorities for alleged subversion, and the soundtrack was replaced by a brief spoken introduction and a jazz arrangement by Zdeněk Liška of the poem "Comment dessiner le portrait d'un oiseau" ("How to draw the portrait of a bird") by
Jacques Prévert. Since the
Velvet Revolution, the original tour guide soundtrack has been made available.
In the documentary
Long Way Round,
Ewan McGregor and
Charley Boorman stop to see this church.
Dan Cruickshank also views the church in his
Adventures in Architecture.
The ossuary is a major plot device in the
John Connolly novel
The Black Angel.
The ossuary was used as a location for the
Dungeons & Dragons (film).
Also, the Ossuary was featured in Ripleys Believe it or Not.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Sedlec Ossuary'.
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