Roman church decorated with 4k skeletons

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/decorated-with-4000-skeletons-this-roman-church-will-have-you-pondering-your-own-mortality-180981573/

by samizdis • 3 years ago

180 178 3 years ago

smithsonianmag.com

potatototoo99• 3 years ago

Another church decorated with skeletons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capela_dos_Ossos

belter• 3 years ago

Been there great place. It's also my desktop wallpaper...never again got interrupted by colleagues and junior developers during my coding sessions.

mensetmanusman• 3 years ago

Memento mori (Latin for 'remember that you [have to] die') is an artistic reminder of the inevitability of death. Helps me tremendously!

Ichthypresbyter• 3 years ago

One of the more famous examples of this is the strange object in the foreground of The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger [0], which resolves as a skull when viewed from the correct angle.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Hans_Hol...

jxramos• 3 years ago

exactly, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori

DoingIsLearning• 3 years ago

There are plenty of chapels and crypts filled with bone/skull walls throughout catholic Europe, the author makes it look like this is quite unique and limited to three locations which is not entirely true.

jdthedisciple• 3 years ago

Excuse me sir, but now you're making it look like they are ubiquitous.

Pretty sure that's not the case either.

So I appreciate this post, first time I hear of this.

9887472• 3 years ago

Found one in Poland as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull_Chapel

EDIT: and in Portugal https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/story-...

And in Czech Republic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary

And in Peru: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_and_Convent_of_San_Fr...

And another list with 40 entries: https://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/definitive-guide-to-ossua...

jansan• 3 years ago

If you want to see one of these places, I can recommend Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora / Czech Republic. I contains about 50,000 skeletons, which basically make up all the interior decoration. It is interesting how you get used to being surrounded by skeletons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary

Edit: They also have a very nice gothic cathedral, a modern art museum and a silver mine that was turned into a museum in that city.

glasss• 3 years ago

Oh man I thought it was 4K as in resolution and I was confused and intrigued.

karaterobot• 3 years ago

Same here. I thought "wow, 4K skeletons? That's pretty hi-death."

shadowgovt• 3 years ago

I was really tired of putting up with those standard definition skeletons.

ubermonkey• 3 years ago

The previous skeletons, which were rendered in traditional HD, have been moved to a less expensive media market.

CharlesW• 3 years ago

Related tip for submitters: When HN's title processing inadvertently adds ambiguity, you can edit it immediately after to improve it.

(Original title is, "Decorated With 4,000 Skeletons, This Roman Church Will Have You Pondering Your Own Mortality", too long for HN)

dylan604• 3 years ago

James Cameron would be proud as they're even in 3D

martin-adams• 3 years ago

Let's hope there's no ghosting though

busyant• 3 years ago

My wife and I visited this place about 20 years ago.

I remember a woman from Wisconsin laughing and proclaiming, "We Lutherans would never do anything like this!"

parabyl2• 3 years ago

Similar story, when I visited there was a school group from Northern Ireland talking about "The catholics were brutal weren't they!"

hprotagonist• 3 years ago

  46.  Keep death daily before your eyes.

Rule of St Benedict

https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/50040/pg50040-images.html#c...

capableweb• 3 years ago

This has helped me a lot to (what it feels like) take care more about what I spend my time on.

As extra help, I have a printed page from https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html of the final "Your Life in Weeks" image which I fill out every week. Puts yet another perspective on the very same thing.

Some people when they see it feel like it's macabre or stressful but it has the opposite effect on me, especially when dealing with problems that in hindsight are trivial.

6502nerdface2• 3 years ago

Personally, I hang a "memento mori" near every mirror in the house, to remind him who would regard himself that what he sees will one day inevitably return to the earth.

bruce343434• 3 years ago

That seems rather anxiety inducing. "Remember that you will die" is the saying, not "be obsessed with it".

TheFreim• 3 years ago

5:00AM every morning I receive a reminder on my phone: "You will die someday."

brookst7• 3 years ago

I get text messages like that. Still don’t know who it is.

darkarmani2• 3 years ago

Stoic praemeditatio malorum.

Rebelgecko• 3 years ago

Why is it a different number in the Sqlite Code of Ethics?

https://sqlite.org/codeofethics.html

monero-xmr3• 3 years ago

Catholics believe in "incorruptibility" as a sign of potential sainthood. This is where the body does not decompose. You can see the bodies on display https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorruptibility

Catholics also believe in demonic possession, hell, and exorcism. Not the first things a priest will tell you though :)

sorokod2• 3 years ago

They also believe in a three person god. Not sure in which lesson this comes up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church#Nature_of_God

Grazester2• 3 years ago

God the son, God the father and God the holy spirit(The trinity). Also mention in pray and referenced in the bible I believe.

BizarreByte5• 3 years ago

The trinity is a fundamental Christian belief, not just Catholic. If one doesn’t believe it than most won’t consider them Christian. This is a huge reason why Mormonism is it’s own thing.

I don’t believe anymore as an adult, but this was taught right away when I was a kid going to the Catholic Church. I don’t think you could find a catholic who doesn’t know what the trinity is.

nsxwolf3• 3 years ago

In any sort of Catholic education, this is learned immediately.

Grazester2• 3 years ago

Why wouldn't they tell you they believe in hell? It is mentioned in pray it was used to scare me into not misbehaving as a child by my teachers who were priests and nuns. This is not a secret nor did they try to hide it.

monero-xmr3• 3 years ago

The demonic possession and exorcism parts not hell itself

gjsman-1000• 3 years ago

by my teachers who were priests and nuns

The Catholic Church has always believed in Hell. Jesus himself made reference to Gehenna (which was literally a valley of death back when he was alive, the Valley of Hinnom, where the Bible also documents child sacrifice to have occurred), as well as symbolically with the parable of the wedding feast. For this reason, many Catholic saints were themselves quite afraid of it and worked to avoid it.

Common misunderstanding though comes from "how could a good God sentence anyone to hell?" Well, to put it one way, he doesn't. Imagine if your teenage son violently doesn't want to attend your Christmas gathering. Would it be loving of you to force him to attend? Or, more graphically, imagine your son is a drug user who has lost home, family, girlfriend, and yet obstinately resists rehab - and you'd love for him to come, but he'd have to lay off the drugs, and he refuses any effort. Thus, the Catholic understanding is that the souls in Hell are obstinate in their sin and obstinately do not want to be in Heaven, for eternity because they will never change their minds. "The doors of hell are locked on the inside." They will, within Catholic thought, know they are in the wrong, but they would sin immediately again if they were permitted another second on Earth. This obstinacy in sin is mainly caused by refusal to repent for grave sins that have been committed.

This also explains, in a way, the reason why the Catholic Church in particular has very little hope in salvation for those who are atheist or similar.

tablespoon• 3 years ago

Catholics also believe in demonic possession, hell, and exorcism. Not the first things a priest will tell you though :)

Because the first thing anyone will tell you is almost always a greeting, their name, or "excuse me."

gpderetta• 3 years ago

There is also the classic "what are you doing in my home!"

dragonwriter2• 3 years ago

Catholics also believe in demonic possession, hell, and exorcism. Not the first things a priest will tell you though.

It pretty literally is one of the first things a priest (or a layperson acting on their behalf) will tell you, in that it is a routine part of preparation for the entry into the Church, and, in fact, a (minor) exorcism is performed as part of baptism.

antognini3• 3 years ago

Moreover every Catholic diocese must have a trained exorcist.

Ekaros• 3 years ago

Would that make Lenin a saint? I mean his body has been around wearing away clothes for good while.

jayknight• 3 years ago

They have put a lot of effort into keeping him looking incorrupt (he's mostly wax now) to try to elevate him to the status of an atheist/communist "saint", basically mocking the traditional Orthodox views on incorrupt relics of saints.

_-david-_• 3 years ago

Incorruptible bodies are not proof of sainthood. Also, I assume Lenin's body had something done to it?

rsynnott2• 3 years ago

Most people who identify as Catholic in developed countries today don’t believe in any of those (demonic possession and exorcism would be particularly fringe, but in surveys in many countries the majority identifying as Catholic don’t believe in hell or sometimes transubstantiation either)

User23• 3 years ago

There certainly are plenty of cultural Catholics who don't believe much of if anything that the Church teaches. The example of possession is particularly interesting though, because it's so overt. Unlike transubstantiation, where we have to take it on faith, there are documented cases of demonic possession that really defy natural explanation. Things like knowing secrets, speaking unknown languages, levitation, feats of strength, and so on have all been observed. Here[1] is one example and you can find many more, including from non-Catholic or even non-Christian specialists who have been retained to rule out mental illness and other natural explanations. Unfortunately it is a rather sensationalized subject, so there is a lot of garbage out there too.

[1] https://www.ncregister.com/blog/christ-s-power-shines-even-i...

antognini3• 3 years ago

True, but Catholicism isn't a democracy. Catholic beliefs aren't determined by what self-professed Catholics say they believe in, but what the Catholic Church itself professes.

ndr• 3 years ago

Milan has its own:

In 1210, when an adjacent cemetery ran out of space, a room was built to hold bones. A church was attached in 1269. Renovated in 1679, it was destroyed by a fire in 1712. A new bigger church was then attached to the older one and dedicated to Saint Bernardino of Siena.

Some pictures here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bernardino_alle_Ossa

VadimPR• 3 years ago

Beautiful place. The crypt includes a quote that really resonates with you - translated to English - "you are what we were; you will be what we are"

beezlebroxxxxxx• 3 years ago

Reminds me of some lines in the final stanza of Tennyson's Ulysses:

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' / We are not now that strength which in old days / Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

peter422• 3 years ago

“Look alive, see these bones

What you are now, we were once

But just like we are, you'll be dust

And just like we are, permanent”

-Nada Surf “See These Bones”

soco• 3 years ago

"Wherever you go, death follows, as a body’s shadow." (in the Paris catacombs)

parabyl2• 3 years ago

Truly beautiful place, and one of the more interesting museums I visited in Rome in terms of artifacts and such on display.

penguin_booze• 3 years ago

I've heard a perhaps more poetic version: as you are, so was I; as I am, so will you.

hackernewds5• 3 years ago

Beautiful

bmj• 3 years ago

"You will become what I am." (https://death-to-the-world.myshopify.com/products/you-will-b...)

pastor_bob• 3 years ago

Interesting thing about this place is that's it's illegal to decorate with Human Remains in Italy now, so if a bone falls off the wall, they legally can't put it back!

smegsicle• 3 years ago

though there is a convenient loophole known as the 'five second rule'

boredemployee2• 3 years ago

these photos make me anxious for unknown reasons

fishtacos• 3 years ago

You know why.

boredemployee2• 3 years ago

do I

belval• 3 years ago

The Paris catacombs, while lacking the Catholic aspect really resonated with me. There is something so incredibly humbling in looking at literally million of skulls and realizing that we are ultimately as insignificant as they were.

xwdv• 3 years ago

Not being able to comprehend their significance is not the same as them being insignificant.

junon• 3 years ago

... missing the point entirely.

BizarreByte5• 3 years ago

That’s an optimistic take, in reality it’s proof of the fundamental truth that we don’t actually matter and that nothing we do will ultimately matter.

You couldn't even know the name of a person who had one of the skulls, much less know anything they ever did. Their lives were, like ours, completely irrelevant long term. This has to be one of the hardest things for a living human to accept.

steveBK123• 3 years ago

It's interesting how in less modern times, death was more ever present and yet they still went out of their way to remind people about it.

The modern world by contrast, one can go well into their 30s without personally being touched by it in your family/friends circle. We could use the reminder of it now more than then, and yet we sanitize & Disney-fy everything instead.

sbaiddn• 3 years ago

Im nearing 40 and the only person "close" to me that has died is my grandpa, but I barely knew him since I grew up half way around the world.

As an (immature) adult I saw him twice. Twice as a teen. Once as a child post-migration.

I loved him so dearly as a young child yet, when he passed, it barely registered.

tobyjsullivan• 3 years ago

The article presents so much mystique around the origin of the artful arrangement.

All I could think while reading is this is what happens when the head friar tells the new kid, “the crypt has become a complete mess, can you head down there and make it nice?” And then doesn’t check in on his progress.

photochemsyn2• 3 years ago

A great many people are incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of death, and installations like this, and similar works of art, are a great antidote. Accepting death as the price of life might be a bit difficult for people raised in a culture that worships perpetual youth and which dreams of immortality, perhaps in the form of a digital silicon upload, but it's really a sign of maturity.

Taking a minute or so out of every day to meditate upon the inevitablity of your own death is good for one's mental health - and can be motivating. If there's something you want to do, do it now - tomorrow is not guaranteed!

user3939382• 3 years ago

"Who promised you tomorrow?" - St. Alphonsus Liguori, Preparation for Death

Aeolun2• 3 years ago

In some ways, the 10000+ previous days of my life are a fairly reasonable promise of tomorrow.

BeFlatXIII2• 3 years ago

Being born is a death sentence.

echelon• 3 years ago

People were never seriously interested in extending their lives. I submit that there's a pretty easy, macabre (to most) way to go about it:

Monoclonal antigen-free body farms. Grow human bodies in labs -- farmed donor bodies -- and get good at head transplants.

This cures most cancers, most diseases, skipping the complicated molecular biology we've yet to solve for.

Literally replace your whole body as it ages. You can renew the thymus (big!), circulatory, pulmonary system, etc. It would have a rejuvenating affect on the brain. You'd probably give humans 150-year lifespans with it. Be able to run marathons in your 70's.

We'd suck at head transplants for decades (reducing patient outcomes in the initial period), but over time could probably get quite good at it. Initial patient populations could be recruited from terminal cancer patients, where the cancers have not spread to the blood or brain tissues. Survival rates would be low, and a lifetime of paralysis would likely be the penalty for the first decade or so of patients. But in time, we'd get better. Eventually to the point where it was no longer an emergency procedure, but a preventative maintenance measure.

The ancillary tech that would spring up from this would be in the BCI domain and we'd start getting good at modeling brain states. A whole industry of related organismal-level biotech advances would arise, propelling us forward like a new space age (or AI wave, to reference a current trend of advances).

There are crazy other things you could do - race and gender changes, better than natural genes and performance (VO2 max etc) enhancements, transgenic stuff, etc. Why limit ourselves to our previous limitations?

In 200 years we could conceivably move human thoughts onto silicon and stop dying. Too late for us with present day "life extension" / "health span" prognosis, so nobody is trying.

But it's "icky" and you'd get an even worse reaction than artists take to AI art or certain greens take to nuclear. The "people should die" folks raise their pitchforks, as do the incredibly religious. It's a very tough pill to swallow.

It angers me, because it's pretty low hanging fruit. You could grow bodies as vegetables without brains. Cut them off in development genetically and surgically. Innervate and artificially grow the bodies in advanced farms that keep their muscles moving, their hormones and limbic systems pumping, etc.

If I make a billion dollars I'll put everything into it. I want to live 150 years, and I want everyone else to as well. It's way more important to me than buying stuff or collecting "experiences".

As it stands, there's little point to anything we do (despite the fact none of us behave this way). Our experiences and enjoyment are short-lived dopamine hits to decaying neural networks, which on the geologic time scale, are pathetic little flashes that will never be noticed or remembered. When our brain cells bleb and desiccate, they won't remember all the good times we had or money we spent.

My perspective is we're all already dead. We may as well be holograms of our machine descendants playing out historical recreations.

Anyway, we could solve this if we put ourselves to it. I've yet to meet anyone else that's so gung-ho about it. I just think we're too early. And to this decaying neural network, it's kind of a horror to watch how others deal with the fact.

mc322• 3 years ago

There are some cultures that believe the remains of their ancestors are sacred. How would you encourage them to accept your POV?

NoZebra120vClip3• 3 years ago

Roman Catholic culture is one of those by far. What better way to attest to the sacredness of human remains but to incorporate them into the most sacred architecture we have?

Human remains of Catholics are buried until their cause for canonization calls for exhumation and examination of the relics. By the time of canonization, division of the relics has begun and they are distributed for veneration to various communities and places. This is how we treat sacred remains: by making them accessible to all the faithful for viewing, veneration, and inspiration.

What was your question again?

clhodapp• 3 years ago

Personally, I find a lot of truth in what you say but I vehemently disagree with the premise that we should accept death as the price of life.

Of course, we need to be realistic and acknowledge that everyone living will all almost certainly die one day but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive for a future without death.

I think that CGP Grey's video, Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant, does a wonderful job arguing this viewpoint.

brookst7• 3 years ago

I admire striving to not die.

Statistically, I fully expect to die. Never dying would be a fantastic surprise.

I think acceptance is a lot healthier and more likely to produce happiness in life than thinking one may be an exception.

anigbrowl• 3 years ago

All things have an extent, the urge to forget this is regressive imho.Books/TV shows that never ended seemed highly desirable when I was young, but infinite potential arguably means nothing matters.

danjoredd• 3 years ago

I disagree with the idea of trying to defy death itself, as it is a physical impossibility due to the law of entropy. All things eventually reach a state of chaos, including our bodies. Death comes for us all one way or another. That being said, I DO see trying to extend our lives as long as physically possible as a worthy cause.

whatshisface4• 3 years ago

I don't know about you but seeing a big pile of skeletons in a basement mainly serves to confirm the ideas about death that I already had.

It's also kind of misleading because they're not complaining but dying is actually pretty awful unless you're really, really lucky.

brookst7• 3 years ago

Wait, is it lucky if you’re aware of your last moments or lucky if you’re not?

warent2• 3 years ago

Naturally dying is unpalatable to the individual living brain, evolved for survival and reproduction!

Doesn't it seem to be that death and life are mind-made abstractions of an unfathomable process of eternal continuity and change?

In our minds it's all very binary because of evolution, and we conflate our evolved perception with true reality.

If we peel back those layers then what is remaining?

von_lohengramm• 3 years ago

It sounds like you're entirely missing GP's point.

brookst7• 3 years ago

Paris Catacombs are also amazing for this. First few skeletons are yikes. Next 50 are unsettling. Next 500 are sobering. Next 5,000 start to be kind of interesting, starting to notice variations in bone and joint shapes. Next 50,000 start to resemble the other people walking with you, just more naked. It’s a good experience.

eikenberry• 3 years ago

death as the price of life

IMO this is still casting it in an uncomfortable way. IMO it is much healthier to think of death as the reward for life, the final rest from the toils of living. The idea is to put them on equal footing as they are part of the same process and you should look forward to death as much as you look forward to living.

hackernewds5• 3 years ago

digital silicon upload

What is this a reference to?

kmlx• 3 years ago

ghost in the shell?

cloudify• 3 years ago

On a similar vein, if you visit Milan, go see "San Bernardino alle ossa", little known but quite worth a visit!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bernardino_alle_Ossa#/medi...

inglor_cz• 3 years ago

A very similar place:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary

The bones belong to about 40 thousand people. Realizing that this enormous boneyard is, by size, equivalent to 0,6 per cent of the Holocaust, is extremely sobering.

DubiousPusher2• 3 years ago

I would encourage everyone to visit here or one of the similar places mentioned in this thread.

I visited the Sedlec Ossuary a couple of years ago and it was the most visceral personal emotional reaction I have ever had to seeing something. There is something mind-shifting about seeing thousands of human skulls in a pile ala Terminator that I cannot describe with words. I can only relate it to visiting the Vietnam War Memorial and realizing how those overwhelming 60,000ish names are a mere footnote in the casualty record of human conflict.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary

sitkack• 3 years ago

The Sedlec Ossuary is, or probably should be a great VR experience if you can't go in person (I have). The shock wears off and then you realize how human the place is. We whisk our dead out of sight, having the bones of your dead relatives be so visible, would be like having a time compass directing the path of the rest of your life.

Aeolun2• 3 years ago

It’d be kind of weird to bring someone there, count down the eleventh skull from the top right and then say “this here is grandpa”.

DubiousPusher2• 3 years ago

Agreed. I wanted to keep my post brief so I didn't elucidate. Once that feeling had passed, I didn't posses the sombre semse of mortality that others expressed in this thread. My thoughts were not carpe diem. I didn't update my bucket list.

Rather it gave me a stronger awareness of human connectedness. These are the bones of relatively few people in the grand scheme collected over several hundred years. This is just the tip of an iceberg of all human remains, most chucked into the ground and eventually forgotten but at the same time not without consequence. Because every moment of today is stamped indelibly by these peoples' existence. The crops they grew and things they built and lessons they taught marked the generations after them. It is a permanent mark in the continuity of human culture.

For lack of a better term, it brought me a deep sense of solidarity as a human. It was somewhat radicalizing.

stewx• 3 years ago

And here I am with 1080 skeletons in my house.

Hikikomori• 3 years ago

Visited it by accident the first day in Rome, just happened to walk by. They have a museum before the crypt where each room had some theme and used different bones. Not particularly religious but it was interesting to see. Seemed like someone spent time in their crypt and had too much time and bones on their hands.

peoplefromibiza• 3 years ago

Yep, great place, been there sooo many times, it used to be free, now there's a small fee to pay at the entrance which also includes a visit to the museum of the Capuchins. You'll find there the San Francesco in Meditazione (San Francis in Prayer) painting from Caravaggio. [1]

The English Wikipedia reports it as a copy, but it is still debated if the original is the one in Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini (Our Lady of the Conception of the Capuchins) or the other one in Palazzo Barberini.

Fun fact: both paintings are in Piazza Barberini, a few hundred meters from each other.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Francis_in_Prayer_(Carav...

racl101• 3 years ago

I would not sleep in that room.

brainlessdev• 3 years ago

From Marcus Aurelius's Meditations:

  Mortal man, you have lived as a citizen in this great city. What matter if that life is five or fifty ears? The laws of the city apply equally to all. So what is there to fear in your dismissal from the city? This is no tyrant or corrupt judge who dismisses you, but the very same nature that brought you in. It is like the officer who engaged a comic actor dismissing him from the stage. 'But I have not played my five acts, only three.' 'True, but in life three acts can be the whole play.' Completion is determined by that being who caused first your composition and now your dissolution. You have no part in either causation. Go then in peace: the god who lets you go is at peace with you.

I find the idea frightening but at the same time soothing: life is something one returns, like anything else one could have, one day it will no longer be there; it needs to be returned.

1970-01-01• 3 years ago

They should upscale these to 8K using AI.

martyvis• 3 years ago

A former primary school colleague (we met 50 years ago next year!) and his daughter wrote a pretty decent book on death anxiety - "Mortals: How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society" https://good-grief.com.au/mortals-with-ross-and-rachel-menzi...

snshn• 3 years ago

"It's too late to be scared, the skeleton is already inside you"

Wojtkie• 3 years ago

I've actually visited this place! It was a very informative visit and had a great museum attached. I found a lot of it beautiful

Earw0rm• 3 years ago

So many metal album covers in this.

Barrin92• 3 years ago

I went to a Catholic school growing up, my parents weren't religious and I largely had no relationship to the faith but one thing that always fascinated me growing up was the old, imposing Gothic church that the students celebrated mass in, which as a kid always was a little bit scary to me.

This church with death on display reminds me of that and to me what's always been striking is that there's almost a pagan or occult undercurrent in Catholicism. I think Midnight Mass, a great show btw, captures this as well. Trying to show how much of an actual blood ritual the Catholic Eucharist is. (in Catholicism bread and wine are taken to be transformed into literally(!), not figuratively the blood and body of Christ).

Also wherever Catholicism mixes with folk traditions this is visible, with figures like Santa Muerte in Latin America. And while the Catholic church usually distances itself from this, it's always interesting how easily these traditions blend.

budzes• 3 years ago

Similar church in Czech Republic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary

The Sedlec Ossuary is a Roman Catholic chapel, 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.

The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, whose bones have, in many cases, been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.

milleramp• 3 years ago

I wonder how they mount them to the wall and ceiling?

squarefoot• 3 years ago

I have been there as a kid. I might have been too young to process the experience like something related to death, but I recall I didn't feel anything in particular; it left me with absolutely nothing but thinking "why on earth would someone cover a place with skeletons?". It probably contributed much later to my aversion to horror movies.

pinko• 3 years ago

There's a modern hotel in the attached original monastery. I attended a scientific conference there a few years ago. Very cool, very weird venue to spend a few days.

Roman church decorated with 4k skeletons

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