The bone-chilling reason THIS church is covered in thousands of human skeletons
SCATTERED in skulls, the Czech Republic’s ‘Bone Church’ has a dark and haunting past.
More than 40,000 skeletons decorate this creepy Czech chapel
If you’re up for a holy holiday but you’re also dark and twisted, the ‘Bone Church’ is the place for you.
Officially titled the Sedlec Ossuary, the chapel sits just outside of Prague in the Czech Republic.
The ancient underground site is covered head to toe in human remains.
Built under the grounds of a former cemetery, there was no shortage of skeletons to use in the church’s design.
Skulls line the walls of the underground Sedlec Ossuary
City guide: Prague
Founded in the 13th century, the graveyard completely filled up with more than 30,000 people by the end of the 1400s.
Soldiers who met untimely deaths and victims of the plague were many among them.
To make room for more, the remains were dug up and shifted to the underground church where bones piled up in pyramid formations over the years.
It wasn’t until 1870 when a noble family stepped in that the bones became gruesome decorations.
The bone decorating began in 1870 when an artist was hired for the haunting task
The centrepiece is a chandelier made from every bone in the human body
Artist Frantisek Rint began the laborious task of covering the surfaces of the holy site in bones.
Today more than 40,000 bleached skeletal remains can be seen throughout, where bones hang from the ceiling, line the walls and even form chalices.
The disturbing centrepiece is a chandelier with every bone in the human body dangling from it.
It’s believed to represent a seven-headed beast from the Book of Revelation in the Bible.
Many of the skulls belong to victims of the plague and fallen soldiers
The 'Bone Church' lies just outside Prague under a former cemetery
Some remains are still piled up in one of the neglected corners of the church.
The spine-tingling site is not the only one of its kind in the Czech Republic.
Brno Ossuary was rediscovered in 2001, holding the remains of more than 50,000 people.
That makes it the second largest ossuary in Europe after the Catacombs of Paris.