Sedlec Ossuary

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Lots of driving with a stop at a hyper market—think of the Auckland malls then double it, Ken made me rush though, so only got groceries. (I did offer to sit in the van and read while Alison shopped)
Then we went to the Sedlec Ossuary—a chapel and a cemetery have been there for many 100s of years, and many were buried there. Then there was the plague and the 30 year war and many more were buried. Then the bishop went and scattered some earth from the holy land on the cemetery and this made it super popular for interment. Problem was that the marketing exceeded the resources, and they ran out of space and had to store bones in the bottom of the chapel. About 200 yrs ago a family bought the land, and inherited the chapel full of bones - 40,000 peoples worth. They gave permission to the local wood cutter to use them and he decorated the chapel with the human bones and arranged them in patterns and piles and made coats of arms out of them and finally made a huge chandelier. We went into this small chapel with the bones hanging like Christmas decorations. I found it bizarre and weird and distressing, kept looking at each decoration and knowing that this person had actually been someone’s baby and had lived and loved etc. I found it very offensive—I know it is the clash of our culture with that of years ago but it is disgusting that the people are currently making money and playing with human remains, selling little souvenirs of skulls with glowing eyes etc. They should cremate them and then bury them and forget the sadness. The presence of death was just overwhelming, the only good thing was that a picture of Jesus the good shepherd was there, and that reminded me that he would have known them personally and remembers them, and values them as people.

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Photos

Sedlec Ossuary - Bone Pyramid
There is a cavity at the base of the pyramid that goes back about 4-5metres so the bones are that deep as well