The result was a 10-minute-long frantic-cut film of skeletal images overdubbed with an actual tour-guide's neutral voice narration. In 1970, the 100th anniversary of Rint's contributions, Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer was commissioned to document the ossuary. The signature of Rint, also executed in bone, appears on the wall near the entrance to the chapel. In 1870, František Rint, a woodcarver, was employed by the Schwarzenberg family to put the bone heaps into order, yielding a macabre result. This work, in the Czech Baroque style, was designed by Jan Santini Aichel. Īround 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 demolition to make room for new burials.Īfter 1511, the task of exhuming skeletons and stacking their bones in the chapel was given to a half- blind monk of the order.īetween 17, a new entrance was constructed to support the front wall, which was leaning outward, and the upper chapel was rebuilt. ![]() 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. The word of this pious act soon spread and the cemetery in Sedlec became a desirable burial site throughout Central Europe. He returned with a small amount of earth he had removed from Golgotha and sprinkled it over the abbey cemetery. In 1278, Henry, the abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Sedlec, was sent to the Holy Land by King Ottokar II of Bohemia. Īlong with Sedlec Abbey and the rest of the Kutná Hora city centre, it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, because of its unique Baroque architecture. 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. 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. įour bell-shaped mounds occupy the corners of the chapel. The ossuary is among the most visited tourist attractions of the Czech Republic, attracting over 200,000 visitors annually. ![]() 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. ![]() The Sedlec Ossuary ( Czech: Kostnice v Sedlci German: Sedletz-Beinhaus) is a Roman Catholic chapel, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints (Czech: Hřbitovní kostel Všech Svatých code: ces promoted to code: cs ), part of the former Sedlec Abbey in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic.
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