This week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is UNIQUE, and what is more unique than a church decorated with the bones of 40,000-70,000 people? (Actually, lots of other bloggers have some equally unique photos, so you should check them out.)
My version of unique is the Sedlec Ossuary, aka The Bone Church, which happens to have been my destination when I spotted the young Czech lovers from last week’s photo challenge (Love at 16:28).
The story goes that in the 13th century, the abbot of the church went to the Holy Land and brought back some Holy Soil that he sprinkled in the church cemetery. Suddenly, everyone was dying to be buried there! A century later, the Black Death was invented so that lots of people could die all at once. When people still continued to live, the Hussite Wars came along to try to finish the job. The little cemetery got too filled up, so a half-blind monk was assigned the task of unburying people. (Thanks, Wikipedia!)
But what to do with stacks of unburied people? Turn them into chandeliers and shields, of course!
ph.d. in creative writing 
How bizarre…!
I really like the bronzey colour in the first ones.
that’s morbid and creepy and fascinating all at the same time. I’d love to go see it in person, the vibes that place gives off must be astounding.
Thanks for your comments! Yes, bizarre, morbid, creepy . . . and awesome! – kelcey
The attention to detail is amazing. These decorations seem a bizarre, yet somehow loving act. An opportunity for the dead to remain a living part of their community long after they have walked this earth.