Bone Churches of Europe
Historically, Europeans have found interesting ways to incorporate death into their societal consciousness. Having been the theater for both the Black Death and both World Wars, Europe has witnessed dying on unprecedented scales throughout history. Perhaps as an attempt to deal with this aspect of life, European artists, musicians, religious leaders, and others have often introduced, if not celebrated, the theme of death in their works and deeds.
Some of the more striking examples of this behavior are what I call the “bone churches” of Europe. Some religious leaders and builders decided to bring death to the forefront of visitors’ minds by incorporating the churches’ ossuaries into the actual design of the building. In other words, human skeletal remains were used to decorate the churches. The results of this effort are strikingly macabre, yet one has to marvel at the results of their efforts.
Two well-known places where this phenomenon can be viewed are the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic and the Italian chapel known as Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, or “Our Lady of the Conception of the Capuchins.”
Sedlec has a history that stretches back nearly 800 years. It is decorated with victims of the Black Death and was worked on both by monks and by hired craftsmen. Among the most striking features of this site are an enormous skeletal chandelier, said to possess at least one of every bone in the human body, and a large coat-of-arms of the Schwarzenburg family made entirely of bone.
The Capuchin chapel is almost 400 years old. It has crypts divided up into different rooms, each of which is decorated with a different type of bone. The chapel also features the remains of some of the founding monks of the chapel (still dressed in their brown robes) incorporated into the design, where they appear to be bowing to visitors or comfortably seated in niches. The chapel also features the skeletons of infants on the ceiling to represent angels; wings are made of shoulder-blades, and the skeletons were made to hold scythes to represent the angel of death.
Add these to your list of macabre must-sees in Europe.
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i have seen all of this in some forwarded email. if i didnt delete it, i’ll find it & send u. but that was a long time ago & i remmeber that this thing creeped me out.
wow, that’s better than a tibetan sky burial.
You could add the catacombs of Paris to the list.
Fascinating – though you too have historical wars, admittedly on a different scale. Do you have any different styles of memorials apart from grave yards?
wow..thats almost as creepy as twisted sister singing oh come all ye faithful…
LMAO at Jackiesue’s comment!
I was fascinated by this. How different it seems coming from my Methodist youth with almost no decorations but maybe some stained glass windows. Those pictures are amazing.