Perhaps the world’s most unusual chandelier is in the ossuary in Sedlec, in what used to be Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic. It may seem, when you first look at it, to be the world’s most macabre chandelier – perhaps a relic of a long-forgotten Church of Satan – but it is not. The cemetery there at one time had some earth from Golgotha, the hill on top of which Christ was crucified, sprinkled on it. Soon, people from far and wide wanted to be buried with the soil which might have held Christ’s blood. So the cemetery outgrew it’s original capacity, and especially during the Black Death plague in Europe in the Middle Ages, there were many more bodies than it could handle.

The Gothics began to build a church in the centre of the cemetery in about 1400, which was to have a lower and upper level – unfortunately, there were a bunch of pesky dead people in the way of the lower level … 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. In 1870, the Schwarzenberg family employed František Rint, a woodcarver, to put the bone heaps in some sort of order … luckily they didn’t decide just to burn them. The carver, it seems, missed his calling in life as a bone arranger … maybe an orthopaedic surgeon (!) He created four huge mounds of bones in bell shapes in each corner of the chapel, as well as an enormous chandelier of bones, which actually contains at least one of every bone in the human body.

Impressive garlands of skulls are attached to the ends of the arms. The creators, and the curators, actually have quite positive ambitions about the effect of the cathedral of bones on the living human population – they want it to make people “aware of the shortness of life. The arrangement of the bones should lead us to strive for harmony between people, to appreciate life, and become more aware of our responsibilities.” At one stage, there was a sign outside saying “No Dogs Allowed”… but it has since been removed. Doggy heaven is a place on Earth

The Sedlec Ossuary was featured in “The Black Angel” by Irish writer John Connolly. Here’s a short movie of John’s tour of the ossuary:

Directions to Sedlec Ossuary:

• From Prague, take any train to Kutna Hora from either Prague or Mayarik station. Ask for a ticket to ‘Kutna Hora Sedlets’, not ‘Sedlec’. There is also one in Prague
• Change trains in Kolin if necessary
• When you get to Sedlec station, walk straight ahead
• If you prefer, you can walk from Kutna Hora by following the train tracks next to the main road for about half an hour

Photo credits: Sedlec Ossuary pictures by the nixonator

          

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