Ossario di Sedlec (1278-1870): il lampadario che contiene almeno un esemplare di ogni osso del corpo umano, tra 40.000 e 70.000 scheletri
Nel 1278, l’abate Enrico sparse una manciata di terra portata dal Golgota sul cimitero dell’abbazia cistercense di Sedlec, rendendolo per secoli il luogo di sepoltura più ambito dell’Europa centrale. Peste nera e guerre hussite riempirono il cimitero fino all’inverosimile; nel 1870, l’intagliatore František Rint ricevette l’incarico di mettere ordine tra le decine di migliaia di ossa accumulate, e ne fece un lampadario, uno stemma araldico e ghirlande di teschi che pendono ancora oggi dalle volte della cappella.
About Sedlec Ossuary
The Sedlec Ossuary is a Roman Catholic chapel located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints, part of the former Sedlec Abbey, one of the oldest Cistercian monasteries in the present-day Czech Republic, on the outskirts of Kutná Hora. The site’s fame as a burial ground began in 1278, when Henry, abbot of the Cistercian monastery, returned from a mission to the Holy Land sent by King Ottokar II of Bohemia, bringing with him a small quantity of earth removed from Golgotha, which he scattered over the abbey cemetery. Word of this act spread quickly, and the Sedlec cemetery became a highly desirable burial site throughout Central Europe. During the mid-14th-century Black Death and again after the Hussite Wars of the early 15th century, many thousands of additional burials forced a considerable expansion of the cemetery. Around 1400, a Gothic church was built at its centre, with a vaulted upper level and a lower chapel intended to serve as an ossuary for remains displaced by new construction or unearthed to make room for further burials. The chapel accumulated bone heaps for centuries until 1870, when the Schwarzenberg family, who owned the estate, employed the woodcarver František Rint to bring order to the remains. Rint arranged an estimated 40,000 to 70,000 skeletons into elaborate decorative schemes, most famously a chandelier of bones containing at least one example of every bone in the human body, alongside garlands of skulls draping the vaulted ceiling and a monumental Schwarzenberg family coat of arms rendered entirely in human bone. The upper church itself had earlier been rebuilt between 1703 and 1710 in Czech Baroque style under the direction of architect Jan Blažej Santini Aichel. Today the ossuary draws more than 200,000 visitors a year, making it one of the most visited sites in the Czech Republic.
Key facts
- 1142: founding of Sedlec Abbey, among the oldest Cistercian monasteries in Bohemia
- 1278: Abbot Henry scatters earth from Golgotha over the cemetery, making it a sought-after burial site across Central Europe
- Mid-14th/early 15th century: the Black Death and the Hussite Wars fill the cemetery with mass burials
- c. 1400: Gothic church built with a lower ossuary chapel for displaced remains
- 1703-1710: upper chapel rebuilt in Czech Baroque style by architect Jan Blažej Santini Aichel
- 1870: woodcarver František Rint arranges the bones into a chandelier, a Schwarzenberg coat of arms, and garlands of skulls
- Scale: the remains of an estimated 40,000-70,000 people; over 200,000 visitors annually today
History
Abbot Henry’s 1278 act of scattering a small quantity of Golgotha earth over the Sedlec cemetery — a single symbolic gesture — set in motion a chain of consequences spanning six centuries, transforming an ordinary monastic burial ground into one of Central Europe’s most desired resting places, and ultimately generating the sheer volume of human remains that made František Rint’s 1870 bone arrangements possible in the first place. The specific historical traumas that filled the cemetery to overflowing — the mid-14th-century Black Death and the early-15th-century Hussite Wars — situate Sedlec’s ossuary as a direct physical record of two of medieval Bohemia’s most catastrophic demographic events, its very existence a byproduct of mass mortality rather than a purpose-built monument to it.
Rint’s decision to render the bones into recognisably decorative and heraldic forms, rather than simply stacking or storing them, reflects a distinctively 19th-century aesthetic sensibility toward mortality remains that differs sharply from the site’s earlier, purely functional use as an overflow ossuary — the Schwarzenberg family’s commission effectively converted a practical solution to a centuries-old space problem into a deliberate work of memento mori art.
What you see
The upper Cemetery Church of All Saints, rebuilt in Czech Baroque style between 1703 and 1710 by Jan Blažej Santini Aichel, sits above the lower ossuary chapel, the site’s principal attraction. Inside, František Rint’s 1870 arrangements dominate: a central chandelier incorporating at least one of every bone found in the human body, garlands of skulls strung along the vaulted ceiling, and a full heraldic coat of arms of the Schwarzenberg family rendered entirely in bone, alongside chalices, monstrances, and other decorative bone assemblages throughout the chapel.
Practical information
- Opening hours: generally open daily with seasonal variation; check current hours before visiting; admission fee applies
- Address: Zámecká 28, 284 03 Sedlec, Kutná Hora, Czech Republic
Getting there
Sedlec is reachable by car or train from Prague (approximately 1 hour) as a suburb of Kutná Hora, in the Central Bohemian Region. GPS: 49.9618° N, 15.2881° E.
Nearby
- Kutná Hora historic centre — a UNESCO World Heritage Site, within walking distance
- St Barbara’s Church — a major Gothic church in central Kutná Hora, funded by the town’s silver-mining wealth
- Church of the Assumption of Our Lady — another Baroque church in Sedlec, near the ossuary
Sources
- Wikipedia — “Sedlec Ossuary” (en.wikipedia.org)
- SEDLEC.info — “Ossuary history” (sedlec.info)
- VisitCzechia — “Sedlec Ossuary: Gothic Chapel of Bones & History” (visitczechia.com)
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