In May of this year we did a 10 day trip to the Czech Republic and Poland.
One of the side trips we made was to a town called Kutna Hora. You can see its location on this map.
The reason to visit Kutna Hora, or stay away as the case may be, is because of one of the most unique churches in all of the world can be found there. The Sedlec Ossuary (Sedlec is actually a small suburb about 2 km from Kutna Hora) dates to the year 1142. The short story of why it is so famous is that in 1278, Henry the abbot of Sedlec made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When he returned he had brought with him a handful of dirt from Golgotha, which he sprinkled over the cemetery. Upon hearing this, anybody and everybody suddenly wanted to be buried in the cemetery in Sedlec. With the repeated occurrences of plague and war the number of people dying to get in was more than the cemetery could handle. By 1318 there were already 30,000 people buried there. This went on for over 500 years, until finally in 1870 a wood-carver was hired to do something with all of these bones. So after careful consideration this wood-carver decided that the best thing to do would be to decorate the ossuary with them.
The ossuary now contains the remains of over 40,000 people.
First view of the Ossuary from our hotel (on the right).
The chandalier contains every bone in the human body.
The ruling families coat of arms, perhaps? There are 4 pyramids like the one in the background. I can only guess at how many bones are in each one.
The artist signed his masterpiece.
The Kutna Hora Plague Stick.
Kutna Hora's Church of Saint Barbara is pretty impressive in its own right.
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Comments: 15
What is kind of interesting to note is that the church in Seldec is completely uninteresting were it not for the bones. But because they've decorated the place with them it has become a tourist attraction. Hardly a major attraction, but there was a pretty steady stream of people while we were there. I'm sure most of these people would have never stopped here otherwise.
That was part of the reason that I really enjoyed visiting Poland on this trip. I had no complaints about the Czech Republic, but it was definiltey more westernized than Poland. I found Krakow to be completely charming and would very much like to go back there again.
Thanks for sharing it with us Rick.
I have never been so I enjoyed seeing these photos.
I hope that you will publish more travel articles.
groan...
Looks like a beautiful place~
The Church of Saint Barbara is beautiful architecturally.