Sedlec Ossuary
03-05-2009, 09:00 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-05-2009, 09:13 AM by Friday The 13th.)
Sedlec Ossuary
1 of the top 10 most Haunted Places!
-------------------------------------------
The Sedlec Ossuary is a small Roman Catholic chapel,
located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints.
The ossuary contains approximately 40,000-70,000 human skeletons
which have been artistically arranged to form
decorations and furnishings for the chapel.
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.
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.
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 Rint,
also executed in bone, on the wall near the entrance.
1 of the top 10 most Haunted Places!
-------------------------------------------
The Sedlec Ossuary is a small Roman Catholic chapel,
located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints.
The ossuary contains approximately 40,000-70,000 human skeletons
which have been artistically arranged to form
decorations and furnishings for the chapel.
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.
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.
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 Rint,
also executed in bone, on the wall near the entrance.
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