By MOOK Scenic Spots Family Travel Life Network, compiled and reported by Chen Guanxin. Materials provided by Mook Editorial Department
When traveling in Europe, whether it’s Gothic or Baroque architecture, or the interiors of churches adorned with rose windows and masterful artistic craftsmanshipinterior decorations, visiting historic churches is always captivating. In the Czech Republic, there is a “bone church” whose exterior looks like a typical Gothic building, but inside, instead of being enhanced by masterpieces, it features sacred artifacts and ornaments made from the bones of 40,000 people, including skulls and ribs. These numerous and chilling decorations have also made the bone church famous, attracting many tourists who come to see this bizarre sight surrounded by human bones.
The crystal chandelier made of suspended human bones hanging from the ceiling is hard to ignore. (Image provided by Mook Editorial Department)
The bone church was originally an obscure monastery in Sedlec. In the 13th century, when the Crusaders brought back soil from Jerusalem and scattered it in the cemetery outside the monastery, it began to gain fame. Many nobles and wealthy individuals from Central Europe wanted to be buried here after death. By the 14th century, with the plague raging in Prague and the increasing death toll, more and more graves appeared, with about 30,000 people buried there at the time.
A seemingly ordinary Gothic-style church gained fame because of its relics made from tens of thousands of human bones. (Image provided by Mook Editorial Department)
This continued until 1870, when the Schwarzenberg family, of German noble origin, purchased the land and hired a carpenter named František Rint to collect and carve the bones from the cemetery, fashioning them into various sacred artifacts for decorative purposes inside the church. Conservative estimates suggest he used at least 40,000 sets of bones — an astonishing number — and the site later became known as the “Bone Church” (Kostnice).
Skull candlesticks and the angel above them take some getting used to due to their jarring contrast. (Image provided by Mook Editorial Department)
Upon entering the church, everything in sight — from the windows, arches, crosses, altars, chandeliers, to the Schwarzenberg family crest — is pieced together or decorated using skulls, femurs, and ribs. František Rint even arranged the bones to spell out his own name, which is placed on the last display stand on the right wall of the church. Although the scene is somewhat frightening, these deceased individuals would never have imagined that, a hundred years later, they would become part of a tourist attraction.
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