Friday the 18th, part 2 - - Day of Death

Hey again ...


Back to Friday the 18th then.


So, Colleen and I picked up her rental car (thank you!) and headed on our way to Kutna Hora - home of the Sedlec Ossuary (aka The Bone Church, or Kostnice Ossuary). Kutna Hora is about an hour and a half from Prague, eastward with a turn to the south towards the end.


I first learned about The Bone Church from my most-talented tattoo artist Jimmy (thanks!), and once he mentioned it I had vague recollections of hearing about it. It has been on the "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" show (do you remember that?!?!? I used to watch it!), as well as in a few movies and documentaries.


For the record, part of me does not want to explain what makes it so interesting and just let my pictures show you. However, part of me feels like I should warn anyone who doesn't have any idea what they are in for. So, I guess I will err on the side of caution ... a little.


;-}


The type of building should tell you a lot really, for those that don't know - - ossuary is defined as "a depository for the bones of the dead."


What makes this particular ossuary unique is that in the 1870's the vast number of bones (over 40k) was transformed into art. From here I will jump right into pictures, rather than try to explain my previous sentence further. I will give more history as I go along.

This greets you as you are about to walk through the arched entrance into the grounds.

A shot of the ossuary and chapel from the surrounding graveyard. The ossuary is on the lower floor, and the chapel on the upper one.

This gives you an idea of the layout of the structure.

And now for the bones ... many many many many many (repeat ad infinitum) bones ...

This is above the stairs as you descend, and was the first thing I saw as I entered into the ossuary ... with a little trepidation mind you.

These are in recessed nooks on either wall of the stairway down ... note the garlands of skulls. Ummm, OK, how could you NOT note them! Right!?!?!?

A close-up of the garlands ... ummm, for the macabre - note the teeth in the upper most skull. Freaky! And kinda spooky!! And pretty damn cool too!!!

This is basically the artist "signing" his work ... with the date (1870), his name (Frantisek Rint, show here as F Rint), and then a quote of "with hardening of the Czech's" - - now THAT is a way to identify your artistic creations!

So, I made it down the stairs - - it took a little time, I must admit. I will still a little unnerved about the place and what I would see - - and was also trying to take it ALL in. So, this image looks back up the stairs towards the entrance. Note how the bones basically decorate almost all spaces ... and considering they are the remains of dead people, quite tasteful decorations at that!

This next one is pretty mind blowing ...

There are four of these pyramids (also described as bells) in the ossuary, one in each corner of the floor. They are basically stacks of bones, really really big stacks of course. Words cannot really describe what it was like to stand mere inches away from this thing, surreal and odd and exciting and freaky and neat and scary.

A close-up of the decorations above the bone pyramid. I love that you can actually see the cobwebs in the pic!

This is a close-up of the hole at the base of the bone pyramid ... whoa, did we enter the Twilight Zone here or what?!?!

Around the corner from one of the bone pyramids is this coat-of-arms, for the family that owns the ossuary and commissioned Rint to create the bone art - the Schwarzenberg's. Wow - just wow, that's all I've got on this one.

A close-up of the top of the coat.

Close-up of the 'bust' on the lower right of the coat. Note the ribs sticking out of the top of the head. The "bird" represents a raven eating an eyeball of a Hussite - the band that led the church reformation about a hundred years before Luther. The "bird" is also made of human bones, not bird ones. Freaky!!!

My goodness, some teeth just NEVER decay do they?!?! This is also on the coat.

This is a wide-shot of the ossuary, taken from one wall towards the other. The coat-of-arms is on my right, and a bone pyramid is on either side of me. That's Colleen standing in from of the ossuary altar.

The ossuary altar. Note the bone art in the recessed nooks on either wall.

Me and Colleen standing under the chandelier (wait, just wait until you see that!) - and on top of, although unbeknownst at the time, the entrance to the tomb.

The chandelier, taken from the floor below - cool camera placement tip from a tour guide - taken with flash.

Taken without flash ... f-r-e-a-k-y!

The chandelier from a more normal angle. There is one of EVERY human bone in this masterpiece ... so so so creative and cool!

Look ma ... no self-portrait here! Thanks Colleen!!! I sent this to my ink man (Jimmy) who posted it on his Facebook page with the amusing caption "Amy showing off her work to some dead folks" ... nice! Oh yeah, thanks for getting my name right Jim!

This is the altar of the chapel upstairs from the ossuary.

And that is it for the bones ladies and gents ... so a little history before I show off a couple of my Kutna Hora shots, which is a sweet little town.

The property started out as a Cistercian monastery, in 1142. Then in 1278 the King of Bohemia, Oktar II, sent the abbot of Sedlec on a diplomatic mission to the Holy Land. When Abbot Henry left Jerusalem, he took with him a handful of earth from Golgotha (the place of Jesus' crucifixion outside of Jerusalem's walls) and brought it back and sprinkled it over the abbey cemetery.

Word of this pious act soon spread, and wealthy people from all over Central Europe (not just Bohemia) wanted to be buried there. 

The cemetery had to be greatly enlarged during the Black Death (mid 14th century) - - so much so that it is recorded that in 1318 the cemetery already had 30,000 dead buried there in mass graves. The cemetery was enlarged again for the Hussite wars (early 15th centutry).

Around 1400 a new Gothic church was erected in the center of the cemetery, with a vaulted chapel on the upper floor and the ossuary on the lower. According to legend, in 1511 the task of exhuming and stacking the bones was given to a half-blind monk.

The rest I've told you earlier ... in 1870 the Schwarzenberg's commissioned woodcarver Frantisek Rint to "arrange" the bones ... and what an arrangement they are!

And now ... off to the town of Kutna Hora.

What a cool shot! Through a broken window of an old, crumbling and abandoned building ... with plants growing inside of it!

The cathedral at Kutna Hora.

A fabulous old and crumbling building in Kutna Hora ... love it!

The monument in the town square of Kutna Hora. Neat!

A sweet quaint little cobblestone street in Kutna Hora.

Colleen's pic ... me with our cute Skoda (a Czech made car).

Colleen's pic ... we stumbled into the Italian Court (not sure about the significance of it) in Kutna Hora, and Colleen snapped a pic of me as I discovered that I could get UP to that sweet balcony. Just LOOK at that corner area ... a tower, vines, a balcony, some sort of extruded area - - - I think I am in heaven!

Colleen's pic ... Ha! I was right!!! I can get up to the balcony ... hurray!!

Colleen's pic ... I mean really - just LOOK at that?!?!?! How gorgeous is that? I was able to go up the spiral stone staircase (in the tower) and locate that balcony ... it was awesome, dark and cool and a little spooky!

Colleen's pic ... see, there I am coming out of the spiral staircase in the tower!

Colleen's pic ... A map of Kutna Hora built into the sidewalk - neat!

Colleen's pic ... the Kutna Hora cistern.

My pic taken with Colleen's camera (as mine was outta juice) ... a really cool church.

And that is it my friends. Colleen and I had dinner at a Mexican place in the center of Kutna Hora, as they would have vegetarian for me and also had wireless for Colleen. Needless to say, the meal was NOT yummy - for either of us really, although Colleen's second plate (1st got messed up) was sorta alright.

We got back to Prague by about 11p, and planned to meet the following morning around 10a - - to be off to Dresden, Germany ... woo hoo!!

Thanks for coming along with me on this journey!

Here is a link to the day's photo's on my Picasa page ... "Can you save her Bones?" ... "I don't know Captain, I just don't know" ... and also Colleen's Pix

Tune in tomorrow for Dresden ...

Jud