Restrained, well-trained Prague in style resembles a prim student-excellent student. Not a single extra line and every brick in its place. The first week it delights, then unnerves. So much so that even according to the national tradition, you start to get bored hanging billboards advertising chips on historical monuments.

But the skeleton in the closet can be found in everyone. The Czech Republic decided not to limit itself to a wardrobe and took it under this business. It is there, in the Sedlec district, that the main ossuary of the country.

Come - here you are always welcome.

Every year 250,000 people come to see it. Would you dare to test yourself for endurance?

Ossuary. Entrance to the territory.
Inscription in four languages.

Ready to take selfies not in cafes and malls, but in a church made of bones? Then we declare the fees for the trip open!

Mosaic on the path says that
that you have come to the right address.
Czech humor.

A little bit of history (in order to nod understandingly to the guide, and not to faint), the cost of entry, addresses of souvenir shops ... Comparative characteristics of valerian and as an effective sedative and others nuances that are more pleasant to know BEFORE the tour.

What do thousands of travelers come to see every year?

The ossuary in Kutna Hora is a very peculiarly decorated church. To organize its interior decoration, it took 40,000 human skeletons.

At first glance, you will not suspect anything: a small church surrounded by a cemetery. Nothing remarkable.

You can even come here with children - but what?

But it's worth stepping inside...

Hi - why did you come?

Bones on the ceiling and along the walls. A chandelier, columns, crosses, vases, coats of arms, goblets are made of bones... The author of this gloomy building even laid out his signature with bones.

The hall with the main exposition is a semi-basement.
We go down the stairs...

Chlorine-bleached skulls and shoulder blades, disinfected ribs and vertebrae, humerus and tibia… You can take an anatomy textbook with you and make a mini-inventory: you will find both os coccygis (from Latin - coccyx) and os sacrum (from Latin - sacrum) . Perhaps you did not even know that each of us has so many bones.

Who thought of building something like this instead of sophisticated palaces? Why abused the remains of people? By the way, whose bones are these?!

Many, very many…

Victoria (37 years old, Vladimir):

“I didn’t want to go there, not my format. But the husband argued that it was necessary to see it, and the son was also interested. I was frankly afraid that I would faint or something like that. In fact, pictures on the Internet are more scary. And there, inside, you think about other things. It's not scary, but very sad and calm. Children, especially those who are younger, do not seem to feel anything at all: they run, scream, everyone is trying to steal or pick something up ... I never fainted, but I didn’t take pictures, and I don’t want to go back there again, although, I've been there, I don't regret it."

Human life, what are you?
Who is looking into your face?

It's easy to tell a story, but it's not easy to build a ossuary

The history of the Ossuary (or ossuary: from the Latin "os" - bone) was started by the king of the Czech Republic, Otakar II. He sent one of the novices of the local monastery to Palestine. While on Golgotha, the monk took some sacred land. He brought this earth to the Czech Republic and on a windy day scattered it over the cemetery, which after that was also considered sacred land.

Influential families of the Czech Republic and neighboring countries wished to bury their relatives at such a cemetery. The cemetery has become more popular. But after the difficult year of 1318, when the plague raged with might and main, there was no room for new burials.

Enterprising Czechs got out gracefully. They removed all the old bones and built a cathedral and a crypt nearby for them. And the cemetery began to bury the new dead. The trick was done 6 times.

Now the cemetery looks like this.
Seventh shift...

During this time, 40,000 people found their last refuge in Sedlec. Some monk even built pyramids from all these phalanges, vertebrae and ribs.

But the church was brought to its present form by Frantisek Rint. He was invited by the Schwarzenbergs when they got these lands. Rint designed and created the interior of the Ossuary. His main masterpiece a chandelier in which every (!) bone of the human body was used.

The science of bones is osteology.
And this is an osteological chandelier.

In gratitude for the trust shown, Rint formed from the clavicles, shoulder blades, humerus, radius and ulna bones not only his initials, but also the coat of arms of the Schwarzenbergs.

The Schwarzenbergs weren't shy...

According to the legend, a visit to the Ossuary can bring a lot of money. To do this, you need to throw a coin in front of the altar. And if sometime in the future the person who performed such a ritual will be in poverty, then fate will throw him sudden wealth.

Timofey (32 years old, Moscow):

"Amazing place! Who do you have to be to do something like this? But it was worth the trip. This needs to be seen once. You immediately think about different things that you usually don’t have time to remember. It's beautifully done, albeit creepy. Especially when you imagine that every bone belonged to some person who is like us: he lived, thought about something, dreamed about something ... By the way, I didn’t feel any smell. I was more embarrassed by the perky selfies that other tourists took.”

Next to the cemetery is a playground.
Ordinary. Not gothic at all.

How to get to the Ossuary, so as not to disappear along the way?

Kutná Hora is located 66 km from the Czech capital. The famous ossuary stands on its very outskirts, in the Sedlec area. This area is separated from the center by about 3-3.5 km.

There are two ways to get to the bone deposits:

On one's own

A self-guided trip is suitable for those who:

• does not want to get up early and run to Wenceslas Square by 8:00;
• knows how to drive, is ready to rent a car or get acquainted with Czech public transport alone;
• makes friends with maps, navigators and is not afraid to get lost on the road;
• does not like to live on a schedule and wants to change the route all the time, because “Look, what a colorful building, let's stop and take a picture!”

Price - from 220 CZK (the cost of railway tickets from Prague to Kutna Hora and back).

It is not difficult to get from Prague: you can rent a car, or you can take an hour's nap on the bus or train "Prague - Kutná Hora".

Renting a car is a good option.
There are no problems with parking.

A bus ride will cost 68 CZK. We choose the bus.
The train ticket costs 110 CZK. We check the schedule.

Do you want to plan your trip well? Would you go…. There you will find a number of clues: addresses of trusted restaurants, coordinates of interesting locations that you can visit along the way, etc.

With a group tour

This voyage is an option for those who:

• can't drive;
• does not know Czech or English;
• wants to take a break from searching for attractions on the Internet;
• wants to be sure that by the dinner of this day (!) will be again.

Cost: €27 per person. Duration: 8 hours.

Mikhail (21 years old, Volgograd):

“We decided to go to the Ossuary without fail. When you go inside, there is such a strange feeling ... It's not scary, no. Just remember that no one is forever. There is some kind of respect for death, or something ... I don’t know how to describe it. But there is something to think about, even when he has already left. As for the bones... Everything is done so carefully and precisely that it is quite possible to abstract from the fact that you are surrounded by human remains.

Abstract...
and all will be well.

Reconstruction, work schedule, prices and other org. questions

Cost of tickets to the ossuary:

Full (for adults) - 90 CZK;
Preferential (for students, disabled people, children) - 60 CZK.

Opening hours:

Other days:

• November - February: 9:00 - 16:00;
• April - September: 8:00 - 18:00 (during this period on Sundays - from 9:00);
• October, March: 9:00 - 17:00.

Now in Kostice undergoing reconstruction. The church is surrounded by scaffolding: they put the roof in order and refresh the facade of the building. The renovation will take 5 years. All this time the ossuary in the Czech Republic was and will be open for visitors.

In July 2015, the church looked like this. Side and rear - scaffolding. Reconstruction.

Fables periodically appear on the Internet that the ossuary is closed, but this is incorrect information. The city is run by stupid people. They are able to imagine how many losses Kutna Hora will suffer if its main asset ceases to function for 5 years. Therefore, management will not take such measures.

Are you still nervous and afraid to ride for nothing? Information can always be checked on the official website, in a travel agency or according to the reviews of recently returned tourists.

Photography is allowed, but no flash.

Both beautiful and scary...
Take pictures ... then reflect.

Souvenirs

There is a gift shop in the Ossuary itself, near it and near the Cathedral of St. Barbarians.

Souvenir shop in the ossuary.
The most popular souvenir is a skull.

Here you can buy both standard souvenirs (magnets, T-shirts, etc.) and more specific ones (figurines of knights, key rings, magnets, postcards, cups with skulls and bones, ceramics, etc.).

Another souvenir is a T-shirt for her and for him on an impromptu display case.
350 CZK.

This is ... that one, but can everyone go there?

Particularly impressionable people who lose consciousness from the word "turd" have nothing to do there. The rest will not have nightmares or phobias. No one will go there every year, and one visit for general development can be endured.

If you are a believer and you are worried about how the church treats such places, then you should talk about it with your confessor. He will tell you about the mores of your denomination.

Rita was somehow not at ease here.

In the past, the bones were buried according to the rules, the church still holds services in memory of the dead. Anyone can light a candle. This is hardly an insult to the dead.

But less than ten years later, Rita came here again - already with the children.

Now your wallet and psyche are ready for anything. While other tourists will groan, gasp and try to stay conscious, you can competently count all the clavicles with sternum and take a couple of epic photos. And there you look, and you will be able to snatch the most pretty skulls from the souvenir shop.

Attention to the faint of heart, defenders of the faith and moralists - in order to properly understand this place, you need to know its history!

BONE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC - a church made of human bones (SEDLEC, KUTNA HORA)

On the outskirts of the city of Kutná Hora, in the town of Sedlec in the Czech Republic, there is a unique building - a holy cemetery with Bethlehem land and the famous Temple of the Kostnitsa. The ossuary is nothing more than a chapel of a Catholic church with a ossuary. But that's exactly what the ossuary is unique and the only one in the world. This is a kind of tribute to death and the historical memory of local residents, a reminder of the frailty of all things, the transience of our life and the day of judgment. The temple is decorated with the remains of 40 thousand people - human skulls and bones are everywhere...

From the street, the building of the Ossuary does not particularly stand out, behind the monastery fence, near the modest cemetery, there is a small church entangled in scaffolding.

After the plague and religious wars of the Hussists, there was a catastrophic lack of space, the cemetery grew, but the number of dying people was still much greater than the territory of the monastery land could accommodate. Then it was decided to build a church here with a tomb - the so-called ossuary. In fact, the tomb was an ordinary warehouse of bones that were removed from old graves, and the vacant place in the cemetery was used for the second and third round ... After some time, the place in the ossuary ran out, and then one of the old half-blind monks decided to put in order the heaps of accumulated bones , bleached them in a special disinfectant solution and carefully folded them into four huge pyramids.

So it was until 1870, when the land with the Ossuary passed into the possession of the Schwarzenberg family. They decided to put in order and ennoble the old bone warehouse and hired a talented wood carver Frantisek Rint, whose main task was to create the interior of the church from the accumulated bones. Four now symbolic pyramids remained in the center of the temple, as a reminder of the past merits of the caring monk.

The results of František Rint's work have been impressing visitors for many years: garlands of bones and skulls hang from the ceiling...

In the center of the church, a huge bone chandelier descends from the ceiling, in which all the bones of the human skeleton are involved in full:

To the left of the entrance to the crypt there is a large family coat of arms of the Schwarzenbergs, also made of bones, of course:

Initially, there was no detail on the coat of arms in the lower right corner - the head and the raven appeared later, by order of the family, one of whose members saved the country from the invasion of the Turks by tracking down and killing a Turkish infiltrator. It is his skull that now adorns the family coat of arms, where a raven quite symbolically pecks out the eyes of an enemy spy.

On the sides of the stairs are vases and columns made of human bones...

Even the coat of arms of the city, the coat of arms of the monastery and the autograph of the master on the wall are made of the same material. That is why the Czech Ossuary is unique and the only such structure in the world. Ossuaries can also be found in other countries and cities - mountains of skulls, mountains of bones ... But nowhere else in the world are there interior items made of human bones created in such a quantity.

Many consider such an attitude towards the remains to be barbarism and sacrilege, however, the temple is located below ground level, which means that the bones are actually in the ground, in the crypt, and are buried according to all church canons, plus they were buried according to all the rules in the cemetery earlier. The room is well lit and ventilated, services are regularly held here and candles are always lit in memory of all who are buried here. Everyone can leave 4 crowns in the donation box and put their own commemorative candle.

Impressions, of course, are ambiguous. But as for me, I personally, after death, would prefer to be such an ornament than just rot in an earthen pit. And I don't see anything offensive here.

Particularly impressionable, pregnant women and people with a fine mental organization is not recommended. For the rest, the chapel is open 7 days a week, from morning to evening and seven days a week. The cost of an adult entrance ticket is about 100 kroons. You can take as many photos as you like, but without a flash. Here you can also buy historical brochures, magnets, coins, T-shirts and other souvenirs with the symbolism of the Ossuary.

ATTENTION! The ossuary will soon be closed for several years for reconstruction!
The church itself and the lands of the cemetery adjacent to it are actively sinking underground. But there is no mysticism in this. Like most of the buildings of Kutná Hora and Sedlec (more details in the next post), these lands stand on hollow mines, silver has been mined here for several centuries, and almost all the surroundings are dotted with underground tunnels and empty cavities, which are actively washed away by groundwater. Therefore, over time, there is a settlement of the earth and the buildings built on them. And if you are going to visit this unique place, then I recommend doing it in the near future.

Working mode: November - February from 9:00 to 16:00, October and March from 9:00 to 17:00, April - September from 8:00 to 18:00.

HOW TO GET FROM PRAGUE TO KUTNA HORA?

* BY TRAIN: From the main railway station to the station Kutná Hora hlavní nádraží - 73 km, about 1 hour. According to the schedule, the first train leaves Prague at 5:16, and the last one at 23:16. In the opposite direction - at 5:00 and 22:24. The ticket price is approximately 3 euros (if you buy it in advance). You can check the schedule, cost and buy a ticket through a single service idos.cz

* BY BUS: from the bus stations ÚAN Florenc and metro station Praha Háje to the bus station Kutná Hora autobusové stanice routes daily from 6:00 to 22:00. In the opposite direction - from 4:50 to 20:22. Some routes involve 1-2 transfers, this is about 65 km, travel time is about 1.40-2.00 hours. The price of a ticket for a direct route one way is about 2.50 euros, a trip with a transfer is 2.2 euros. Schedule, route type, ticket price and purchase is also possible through a single service idos.cz.

* WITH THE EXCURSION: in the agencies at the Olroy clock in the center of Prague, a small group excursion for 15-20 people with a Russian-speaking guide-historian for the whole day, with a visit to Kutná Hora, the Ossuary in Sedlec and some Czech castle will cost about 35 euros .

Ossuary in Sedlec (Kostnice v Sedlci) or Roman Catholic cemetery church of All Saints with a ossuary (kostel Všech Svatých s Kostnice).
Czech Republic, Central Bohemian Region (Středočeský kraj). Kutná Hora area (Okres Kutná Hora).
Kutná Hora, Sedlec district (Kutná Hora-Sedlec), Castle street (Zámecká) 127.

“This work cannot be understood as an end in itself, but for many decades it has reminded visitors of the frailty of human life and the unshakable fact of death.”

Already in 1142, this place was the Sedlec Cistercian monastery.

In 1278 Henry, abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Sedlec was sent by the Bohemian king Přemysl Otakar 2 (in Czech Přemysl Otakar/Ottokar) to the Holy Land (Palestine). From the trip, the priest brought some land from Golgotha, where, according to New Testament tradition, Jesus Christ was crucified. The monastery brothers scattered the land near the monastery and founded a cemetery. Since then, they began to believe that the local land is holy. This belief did not come out of nowhere. According to legend, the body begins to decompose here only on the third day after burial. Therefore, many bequeathed to be buried in the monastery cemetery. The fame of the Holy Land in the center of Europe spread far beyond the borders of the country. Among the buried were not only Czechs, but also noble dead from Germany, Poland, Belgium.

In 1318, a plague broke out in Bohemia. Relatives were taking their dead to the place where the monks once scattered a piece of Palestine. In that terrible year, the earth received about 30,000 corpses. The cemetery itself occupied four hectares and was disproportionately larger than the current one. Burials did not stop even after the epidemic. The bodies of Catholic monks were buried here, whom the Protestants slaughtered by the hundreds. (Hussite wars). Over time, the cemetery gained fame as a place where the martyrs and those who died for the faith were buried.

Around 1400, a Gothic church of All Saints was built in the center of the cemetery with a basement chapel of the Agony of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was there that the remains of the bulk of the dead were transferred, since there was no longer a place for new burials in the cemetery. The bones were piled without any order and meaning, without caring about the aesthetics and interior of the huge crypt into which the lower Chapel of All Saints in Sedlec.

Then the “reusable” use of the cemetery land became a tradition: the “old” dead were dug up, their remains were put in the basement of the chapel (ossuary), and new ones were buried in their place, and so on, up to 6-7 reburials in the same place . Thus, the remains of more than 40,000 people have accumulated in the ossuary of the church.

In 1511, a half-blind monk who worked at the cemetery decided to “put things in order” in the ossuary. In the course of work, the monk decided to approach this matter creatively. He sorted human bones, put the skulls into six neat pyramids up to 3 meters high, and in the corners Castel of All Saints in Sedlec carved stone crowns over the pyramids. The monk died in the chapel, according to legend, leaving a note to his brothers stating that, although he was miserable, he was an artist in his soul and would like the memory of him and the dead to be kept for many years. After the death of the monk, the ossuary was closed for as much as 350 years, leaving the "sculptures" of a strange sculptor in a cassock intact, and thus kept them in excellent condition.

In the 16th century, monks found a treasure under one of these pyramids. Its origin has never been determined. He seemed to come from nowhere. Therefore, the brothers attributed the chance find to divine intervention. Sedlec Monastery money was badly needed then, and 10,000 ducats, an absolutely fantastic sum, came in handy.

In 1703 - 1710 Church of All Saints in Sedlec was rebuilt. In the years 1700-1709, Jan Blažej Santini Aichel took part in the reconstruction with the development of the entrance unit of the church, the basis of which is the upper chapel and the lower one - the "ossuary". He gave the ossuary a modern look in the Baroque Gothic style.
In 1784, the Austrian emperor ordered the closure of the monastery. The monastic lands and the church located on them passed to the Schwarzenberg family.
In 1870, the Schwarzenbergs hired a wood carver Frantisek Rint (František Rint) in order for him to put in order a pile of folded bones. František worked with four members of his family who bleached and disinfected the bones by treating them with bleach solution. After drying, they took on a specific, white color. True, over time, the white exhibits turned yellow, and in some places they were covered with autographs of visitors to the castle in Sedlec.

Gradually Ossuary in the Church of All Saints in Sedlec began to take shape and become a work of art. In gratitude to the employer, Rint made the coat of arms of the Schwarzenbergs out of bones. One of the ancestors of this family became famous for his victory over the Turkish infidels. Therefore, the Austrian emperor allowed the representatives of the family to have on the coat of arms the severed head of a Turk, whose eyes are pecked out by a raven.

All altar crosses, all stucco, tabernacles, flowerpots, chandeliers - everything in this chapel is made of human bones. From the pelvises, shoulder blades, ribs, skulls and the rest, including numerous bones of the limbs. The bones are perfectly matched in size and give the impression of integral sculptural compositions. Frantisek Rint was certainly very talented.

PS. It is likely that this unique creation will soon disappear, it is impossible to save it - the bones are fragile, they were bleached in quicklime, freed from the remnants of flesh. The bones are inexorably destroyed and soon the ashes will return to the cemetery, as it should be.

ossuary in Sedlec	entrance to the ossuary in Sedlec	cross over the entrance to the Ossuary
	unique chandelier under the dome of the chapel	altar in the ossuary
	coat of arms of the Schwarzenbergs made of human bones
Ossuary in Sedlec (Kutná Hora)		epitaph
peculiar pyramids in Kostnitsa	fragment of the pyramid in the Ossuary	autograph Rint of human bones

"decoration" of the vault of the arch in the ossuary	fragment of a chandelier made of human bones in Kostnitsa
Ossuary in Sedlec (Kutná Hora)	fragment of the pyramid in the ossuary

The Czech Republic is an amazing country with a rich cultural heritage. During the era of reckless belief in God, Gothic cathedrals and churches were erected throughout the country, some are still breathtaking. In the city of Kutná Hora, there is an architectural monument that is amazing on the outside and terrifying inside - Ossuary, a church made of bones. The church was built to remind of death. All decoration of the chapel is made of human bones.

A Brief History of the Church on the Bones. In 1278, the Polish king Otakar II sent the Sedlec abbot to the holy land in Jerusalem. The monk, returning back, scattered a handful of earth over the monastery cemetery, it became popular among the residents. Further, Europe experienced plague epidemics, city cemeteries grew in area very quickly, they began to bury them in several layers. One old monk in 1511 began to transfer the bones taken out to the surface of the earth into the underground part of the church, having previously bleached them, put them into six pyramids 2-3 meters high. Now on the site of the ossuary of the Sedlec Monastery there are the remains of 40,000 people. If these monks knew how the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the storage of bones would turn out, they would turn over in their graves.

The idea with the decoration of the church appeared in the 18th century, Prince Schwarzenberg, the owner of the monastery land, thought about the eternal. I gave the Gothic work to the local wood carver Frantisek Rint. The carver soaked the bones in bleach, created his creations, which became the basis of the "Church of the bones."

The chandelier is the most complex work, delightful to the point of horror! The woodworker used at least one copy of each of the human bones. The entrance went to the bones of the human skeleton from the phalanx of the fingers to the bones of the coccyx. In Kostnitsa, a chandelier was attached to the ceiling with jaws.

The idea of ​​Prince Schwarzenberg was immortalized with a family coat of arms made of bones. The coat of arms is skillfully executed from a thousand bones. The details are matched to size and symmetrically laid out on one of the far walls.

The pyramids of bones that the monk folded are now behind bars. It is not the empty eye sockets of the skulls that frighten, but the sharp alarm siren upon contact with the fence.

The living are not a hindrance to the dead. Repairs in the church made of bones.

The second floor of the church in Kutná Hora.

The Gothic chapel and ossuary in Sedlec is surrounded by a small cemetery and a fence. Concrete skulls on poles and drawings on the sidewalks warn you where you will end up.

The Czech Ossuary is a must-see place. I guarantee that here you will get ambiguous impressions for the rest of your life: not a drop of fear, only philosophy.

The ossuary in Kutná Hora is the most famous ossuary, a place of storage of skeletal remains, in Eastern Europe. In Western Europe, I know about the Parisian catacombs, there will be a chance to return to Paris, I will definitely visit :)

Traditions of storing the bones of the dead existed and exist among different peoples. Jews, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox have long used urns, crypts, and separate buildings to store skeletal remains. In many cultures, such customs symbolize the belief in life after death. Human skeletons allow you to feel that life is fleeting, and make you think about eternal life.

Not all tourists are ready to enter the Ossuary in Sedlec. It is difficult for someone to do this for religious reasons or out of a simple human fear of death. For them, the very idea that the interior of the temple is made of bones is terrible. Others, on the contrary, find the interiors of human bones and skulls amusing and do not experience negative emotions from a visit here.

Those who dare to look at the unusual Czech church can see a lot of interesting things in it. For example, a candelabra, where all the bones of the human skeleton are used, or the coat of arms of the former owners of these lands, the wealthy noblemen of Schwarzenberg, lined with bones and skulls.

History of the Ossuary in the Czech Republic

In the 13th century, there was a monastery in Sedlec that belonged to the Catholic order of white monks - the Cistercians. Once the Czech king Premysl Ottokar II sent the abbot of this monastery on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The abbot visited the sacred mountain of Golgotha ​​and brought some land from there. When he returned home, he dispelled it over the local cemetery.

In the XIV century, a terrible plague epidemic took place throughout Europe, and people died from the disease in tens of thousands. In the next century, a large number of inhabitants died as a result of the Hussite wars. It soon turned out that there was nowhere else to bury the dead, since there were practically no places suitable for burials.

It was then that in Central Europe they began to bury the dead a second time. The bones lying in the ground were dug up and put into chapels - the so-called "bones", and the vacated graves were again used for burials. Such a chapel in the central part of the cemetery in Sedlec was built around 1400. It was erected as a Gothic temple with a special tomb - a bone for storing the skeletonized remains of the dead.

It is known that in the 16th century in Sedlec skeletons were dug up by a half-blind monk, whose name has not been preserved in history. He bleached the bones and skulls extracted from the earth and put them into pyramids. A lot of work was done, and from human skeletons and individual fragments of bones, the monk built six high pyramids. When the monk died, members of the monastery community locked the chapel, but the bone pyramids inside were not touched.

At the beginning of the 18th century the church was rebuilt. One of its walls began to lean outward, so a new entrance was added to the temple, which could strengthen the wall. In addition, the upper tier of the church was reconstructed in the Baroque style in accordance with fashion trends.

In 1794, by decree of the emperor, the Cistercian monastery was closed, and the lands of the monastery and its ossuary began to belong to the noble noble family of Schwarzenberg. In 1870, on their behalf, the famous Czech carver Frantisek Rint undertook to decorate the Ossuary in Sedlec with bones accumulated over several centuries. He re-bleached parts of the skeletons with bleach and created from them compositions and individual decorative elements for the interior of a Catholic church. The results of his work have survived to this day.

What can be seen in the church

From the outside, the Ossuary in the Czech Republic is unremarkable. This is a gothic temple, slightly gloomy in appearance, in which simple forms and strict lines prevail. It has arched windows and several small turrets.

But the interior of the church is amazing. At the corners of the building are piles of bones in the form of huge bells. The iconostasis, vaults and arches are lined with skeletonized human remains. They made vases and ceiling decorations.

In the nave of the church there is a large candelabrum, which is decorated with garlands of skulls. Even the fastenings of this chandelier to the ceiling are made of bones. Using the same technology, the monstrances in the altar and the family coat of arms of the Schwarzenbergs, topped with a bone crown with a cross, are laid out. Even his own signature on the wall, which can be seen to the right of the entrance to the church, was built by the carver Rint from bones.

Visitors to the Ossuary in Sedlec have developed several customs. One of them is to leave coins near the skulls. Since there are tourists from all over the world, there are coins from different countries in the Czech church.

Useful information for tourists

The ossuary in Sedlec can be visited on any day of the week. It is open from morning to evening, except for Christmas. From November to February - from 9.00 to 16.00, from April to September - from 8.00 to 18.00, in March and October - from 9.00 to 17.00, and on Sundays - from 9.00 to 18.00.

Entrance fee: for adults - 90 kroons, for children - 60 kroons. There are discounts for families and group tickets.

Flash photography is prohibited inside the temple. If someone tries to break the rule, an audible alarm goes off.

Reconstruction of the Ossuary in the Czech Republic

Since 2014, reconstruction works have been going on in Kostnitsa, which will last up to 10 years. Contrary to the erroneous information spread on the network, the entrance for visitors is open, and only places where renovation is currently underway are inaccessible.

How to get there

There are different ways to get from Prague to Sedlece. Regular buses run from Prague's Florenc bus station to Kutná Hora. From Kutná Hora to Sedlece, it is easy to drive by shuttle buses or walk.

Trains run from Prague Central Station (Hlavní Nádraží) to Kutná Hora every 2 hours. In about an hour they reach the main station of Kutná Hora (Kutná Hora hlavní nádražíi). From here, 8-seater buses "Tourist Bus" run to the Ossuary in Sedlec.

If you get to the church by car, then from the Czech capital you need to go east and move along the E67 highway for about 50 km, then turn southeast - to Kolin, and after 30 km to the southwest - to Kutna Hora.