Sedlec Cemetery

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

In 1278, Henry, the abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Sedlec, was sent to the Holy Land by King Ottokar II of Bohemia. He returned with 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. In the mid 14th century, during the Black Death and after the Hussite Wars in the early 15th century, many thousands were buried in the abbey cemetery, so it 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. After 1511, the task of exhuming skeletons and stacking their bones in the chapel was given to a half-blind monk of the order according to a legend. Between 1703 and 1710, a new entrance was constructed to support the front wall, and the upper chapel was rebuilt in the Czech Baroque style, designed by Jan Santini Aichel. In 1870, František Rint, a woodcarver, was employed by the Schwarzenberg family to put the bone heaps into order, yielding a macabre result. His signature, also executed in bone, appears on the wall near the entrance.

In Their Own Story

Four bell-shaped mounds occupy the corners of the chapel. A 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 vault. Other works include piers and monstrances flanking the altar, a coat of arms of the House of Schwarzenberg, and the signature of František Rint, also executed in bone, on the wall near the entrance. The ossuary has appeared in numerous media: in 1970, Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer documented it in a 10-minute film that was initially banned by Czech Communist authorities. It was featured in the documentary *Long Way Round* with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, and in Dan Cruickshank's *Adventures in Architecture*. The ossuary is a major plot device in John Connolly's novel *The Black Angel* and was used as a location for the *Dungeons & Dragons* movie and the movie *Blood & Chocolate*. It appeared on *The Amazing Race Australia 1* and *HaMerotz LaMillion 2*. The bone chandelier was featured on the cover and in the music video for the single "Schwarzer Sarg" by Japanese group Yōsei Teikoku. A photograph of the chapel's interior was used as cover art for the 1998 album *Nightwork* by Diabolical Masquerade.

Reader's Guide

The Sedlec Ossuary is located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints, part of the former Sedlec Abbey in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. It is among the most visited tourist attractions of the Czech Republic, drawing over 200,000 visitors annually. Visitors can see four bell-shaped mounds of bones in the corners of the chapel, a chandelier containing at least one of every bone in the human body, garlands of skulls draping the vault, piers and monstrances flanking the altar, a coat of arms of the House of Schwarzenberg, and František Rint's signature in bone near the entrance. The ossuary is open to the public and offers a unique, macabre experience of medieval and Baroque religious art.

Did You Know?

• The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people.
• The chandelier of bones contains at least one of every bone in the human body.
• In 1278, abbot Henry sprinkled earth from Golgotha over the abbey cemetery, making it a desirable burial site.
• František Rint, a woodcarver, arranged the bones in 1870 and left his signature in bone near the entrance.
• Jan Švankmajer's 1970 documentary about the ossuary was initially banned by Czech Communist authorities.