A Church of Bones
To stand outside the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech town of Kutna Hora, it doesn't look all that extraordinary. It's just a little Gothic-style church and cemetery. But the church and burial ground in Sedlec has always been a bit special. The legend goes that, in 1278, the local abbot of the Sedlec monastery was sent by the Czech king to Jerusalem. There, he scooped up a handful of soil from Golgatha (the place where Jesus was crucified) and brought it back, scattering it over the Sedlec Cemetery. Because the cemetery was blessed with soil from the Holy Land, it became a desirable place to be buried in Europe. Today, though, Sedlec is special for another reason. Inside, the Ossuary is decorated with the bones of 30,000-40,000 people. Yes, that's a bone chandelier. The Sedlec Ossuary (Bone Church) The history of this Roman Catholic church and its cemetery is actually quite fascinating. The original cemetery dates back to the 1100s, and the Gothic church was erected in...