Sedlec Ossuary

Sedlec Ossuary, Kutná Hora

František Rint, the woodcarver hired in 1870 to organise the Sedlec Ossuary’s accumulated bones, signed his name above the entrance, in bones. Whether this was professional pride, dark humour, or both is not recorded. What he created in the small Gothic chapel in Kutná Hora remains one of the more extraordinary objects in Central Europe: a chandelier containing at least one of every bone in the human body, four obelisks of stacked skulls and femurs in the nave corners, garlands of skulls along the arches, and a coat of arms for the Schwarzenberg family complete with a crow pecking out the eye socket of a skull. The materials are the skeletal remains of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, mostly victims of the Black Death and the Hussite Wars, exhumed from the cemetery when it ran out of space. The bones were exhumed from the cemetery during the 14th and 15th centuries as the graveyard filled beyond capacity, first from victims of the Black Death, later from those killed in the Hussite Wars. A half-blind monk began arranging the bones in the 1500s. In 1870, a woodcarver named František Rint was hired to organise them properly. He arranged them into a chandelier made from at least one of every bone in the human body, four obelisks of stacked skulls and femurs in the corners of the nave, two large chalices, a coat of arms for the Schwarzenberg family (complete with a crow pecking out the eye socket of a severed skull), and garlands of skulls decorating the arches. Then he signed his name in bones above the entrance.

The whole thing takes about 20 minutes to see and is genuinely strange.

Visiting

Entry is around 160 CZK (around €7). The chapel is open most days year-round, 8:00-18:00 in summer, shorter hours in winter. Photography is allowed. A combined ticket with the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady (in the same Sedlec district, 5 minutes’ walk away) costs around 220 CZK, the cathedral is a Baroque-Gothic structure with a facade by Santini worth seeing if you’re already there.

Kutná Hora

Kutná Hora was one of the most important cities in medieval Europe, its wealth built on silver mines that funded the Bohemian kingdom. The Cathedral of St Barbara, the main draw in the town centre, 3km from Sedlec, is a spectacular late Gothic church dedicated to the patron saint of miners. Its flying buttresses are visible from a distance and the interior is large and high. Entry around 130 CZK.

The Italian Court (Vlašský dvůr) near the town centre was the royal mint where Prague Groschen were produced. Entry around 130 CZK; the guided tour covers the minting process and the history of Bohemian currency.

Getting There

Direct trains from Prague run from Hlavní Nádraží and take around 55 minutes (around 160 CZK one way). Sedlec is a short walk from Kutná Hora-Sedlec station; the town centre and St Barbara’s Cathedral are a further 3km, walkable in 40 minutes or reachable by local bus. The ossuary and the town can be done comfortably as a day trip from Prague; allow 4-5 hours for both sites.