One of the more unusual stops was at the small city Kutna Hora which I will get back too later. Sedlec, a village on the outskirts of Kutna Hora was home to a Cistercian monastery from 1142. Since it was located in the dead centre of town, a cemetery was established at the monastery in the ealy-mid 13th century. In 1278, the King of Bohemia sent the Abbot to Jerusalem, from whence he returned with a jar of earth from the Grave of Christ which he scattered on the cemetery, thus making it part of the Holy Land.
Make no bones about it, people from all over Europe were suddenly dying to be buried there. The cemetery got a real boost in clientele in 1318 adding 30,000 bodies from an outbreak of plague. Then the Catholic church threw a hussyfit over the deemed heretical teachings of
Jan Hus and John Wycliffe which were quite popular and well accepted in Bohemia. This set off the
Hussite Wars, which not only added bodies to the graveyard but resulted in the burning down of the monastery.
So the All Saints Cemetery Chapel with two towers and two floors was constructed on the Monasterical grounds on top of the cemetery . All the bones dug up from the construction of the Chapel and another church nearby were piled into the lower floor of the chapel which became known as the
Ossuary of Sedlec, (
Pile of Bones having already been spoken for).
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| Ossuary of Sedlec |
In 1511 they hired a half-blind monk to stack the bones neatly into 6 pyramids, which were rearranged in 1661. (You cannot make this stuff up). In the 18th century the Chapel and Ossuary underwent modifications and the entire Monasterial lot was purchased in 1784 by the Schwartzenburgs who also owned the Hluboka castle (see previous post).
They hired a wood carver to decorate the Ossuary. The six pyramids of bones, estimated to represent some 40,000 persons, were disinfected and bleached, then bones from two pyramids were used to make the rather macabre decor in the pictures below.
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| The Chalice |
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| Ceiling over chandelier |
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| Family Crest of Schwartzenbergers |
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| One of four remaining pyramids of bones |
