The ossuary in Siedlce ( Czech Kostnice v Sedlci ) or the Church of All Saints ( Czech Kostel Všech svatých ) is a Gothic church cemetery (sometimes defined as a chapel or chapel ) in Sedlec , an area of the Czech city of Kutna Hora , in the crypt of which is the largest in Czech ossuary . Of greatest interest is the interior of the church, fully decorated with human skulls and bones, for the design of which about 40,000 human skeletons were used. A huge chandelier contains the entire set of bones of the human body.
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History
In 1278, Henry, the abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Siedlec , a suburb of Kutna Hora , was sent by the Czech king Przemysl Otakar II to the Holy Land . He returned a little land from Calvary and scattered it in the abbey cemetery. News of this spread, and the cemetery became a popular burial place among residents of Central Europe . Many thousands of people wanted to be buried in this cemetery. Medieval wars and epidemics, in particular the Black Death epidemic in the mid-14th century and the Hussite wars in the early 15th century , replenished the cemetery, which, as a result, grew greatly.
Around 1400, a Gothic cathedral with a tomb was built in the center of the cemetery. The tomb was supposed to serve as a storehouse of bones extracted from the graves, since there was not enough space in the cemetery. The vacated place could be used for new burials or for construction. According to legend, after 1511, the work of removing skeletons from graves and storing them in the tomb was carried out by a half-blind monk of the Cistercian order.
In 1703-1710 the cathedral was rebuilt: a new entrance was added to support the wall leaning outward, and the upper tier was rebuilt in the Baroque style .
In 1784, the emperor ordered the monastery to be closed. The chapel and monastery lands were bought by the Schwarzenberg family [1] .
In 1870, the Schwarzenbergs hired a woodcarver, František Rint, to arrange a pile of stacked bones. The results of his work speak for themselves. At the four corners of the cathedral are huge bell-shaped piles of bones. A huge bone candelabrum hanging from the middle of the nave , containing at least one copy of each of the human bones, and decorated with garlands of skulls. Among other works of art, altar donors , located on the sides of the altar, as well as the large family coat of arms of the Schwarzenbergs and the signature of Master Rint, also made of bones, can be noted.
The chapel is open to visitors 7 days a week, from morning to evening.
See also
- Santa Maria della Conzionie
- Ossuary
Notes
- ↑ Schwarzenberg - an old and rich German aristocratic family, first mentioned in 1172.