Sedlec Ossuary

Sedlec Ossuary: 40,000 Skeletons Arranged Decoratively and the Man Who Signed His Work in Bones

The Sedlec Ossuary sits below the Church of All Saints in Kutna Hora, 80 kilometres southeast of Prague, and contains the arranged bones of approximately 40,000 people. The number reflects centuries of exhumation from the surrounding cemetery, driven by the brutal practical arithmetic of plague victims needing space. In 1278, an abbot named Henry returned from a diplomatic mission to Jerusalem carrying soil from Golgotha and scattered it over the cemetery. The reputation for spiritually advantageous burial spread rapidly. The Black Death of the 14th century and the Hussite Wars of the 15th century filled the cemetery far beyond capacity, and the exhumed bones were stacked in a crypt below a chapel in rough piles.

In the 1870s, the Schwarzenberg family hired a woodcarver named Frantisek Rint to tidy the ossuary and arrange the contents decoratively. Rint took this brief extremely seriously. He produced a chandelier large enough to incorporate every bone in the human body at least once, four large bone pyramids in the corners, two monstrances, and a coat of arms belonging to the Schwarzenberg family rendered in skull-and-pelvis relief with a raven picking at the eye socket of a severed skull. He also signed his name at the entrance in bones. This last detail reveals something about Rint’s relationship with mortality and his own legacy that most people stand in front of and fail to fully consider.

Visiting

The ossuary is in the Sedlec suburb of Kutna Hora, a 20-minute walk or short taxi from the town’s main train station. Open daily, typically 9am to 5pm (extended to 6pm in summer, 4pm in winter). Entry is around CZK 120 for adults; combined tickets with the Cathedral of Our Lady and other town sites are available.

Photography is permitted. The bones are human remains and this is a consecrated Catholic site. Treat the space accordingly.

Arrive at opening (9am) or after 3pm to avoid the main tour group push. July and August are the worst for crowds; a weekday in October is the ideal visit.

The ossuary takes 30 to 40 minutes. The church upstairs is a beautifully restored Baroque structure with different but complementary atmosphere.

Kutna Hora Beyond the Bones

Kutna Hora is a UNESCO World Heritage town that deserves several hours. St. Barbara’s Church is the dominant sight: a Gothic cathedral built with silver-mining wealth from 1388 to 1905, with three tent-like spires and interior frescoes depicting medieval mining work. The Italian Court (Vlassky dvur) was the royal mint where the Prague Groschen – the silver coin that circulated across medieval Europe – was struck.

Lunch costs roughly half what it costs in Prague, which is one of the more practical arguments for the day trip.

Getting There

Direct trains from Prague Hlavni nadrazi run roughly hourly and take just over an hour. The train stops at Kutna Hora Sedlec (for the ossuary, short walk) and Kutna Hora Hlavni nadrazi (for the town centre).