This might be the creepiest place to
pray in all of Europe. Located in Kutná
Hora, in central Czech Republic, the
Sedlec Ossuary is a small Roman
Catholic chapel underneath the Ceme-
tery Church of All Saints, and is estima-
ted to contain between 40,000 and
70,000 skeletons. The chapel, which
has become a popular tourist attraction,
is filled with bones arranged in various
artistic formations, and used as furnis-
hings. The unique decoration is thanks
to local woodworker František Rint,
who was tasked in 1870 with putting
the chapel’s bones to creative use. He
spent years cleaning, bleaching, and set-
ting the bones for display, and the re-
sult is one of the most chilling churches
in the world. As the story goes, a local
abbot made a pilgrimage in the 13th
century to Jerusalem and brought back
some sacred soil to spread across the
church cemetery. Word got out, ma-
king the Sedlec cemetery one of the re-
gion’s most popular places to be bu-
ried.
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