The Czech Town Where A Chapel Is Made From Human Bones

There is no glaring warning on the outside. The Cemetery Church of All Saints in Sedlec, just beyond the historic centre of Kutná Hora, looks like a modest medieval chapel. Then you descend into the lower chapel and notice the chandelier. It is made of human bones. So are the garlands, pyramids, crosses, monstrances, and the enormous Schwarzenberg family coat of arms.

This is the Sedlec Ossuary, one of Europe's most extraordinary charnel houses. Its reputation rests on its macabre interiors, but the bones tell a much larger story. They belong to people buried in one of medieval Bohemia's most important cemeteries, a place transformed by silver, famine, plague, religious devotion, and centuries of changing attitudes towards death.

How Sedlec Became A Cemetery For Thousands

The story begins long before the famous bone decorations. Sedlec's Cistercian monastery was founded in 1142, and the settlement later prospered after silver was discovered in the area. By the 14th century, Kutná Hora had become an important mining and royal city. Its cemetery at Sedlec expanded with it.

There is also a famous legend behind the cemetery's popularity. Abbot Henry is said to have travelled to Jerusalem and returned with soil from Hakeldama, the biblical Field of Blood. He scattered it over the cemetery, turning Sedlec into a so-called "Holy Field." The story helped establish the cemetery as a desirable place of burial, although historians distinguish this later tradition from the site's documented history.

The documentary record is surprisingly old. The Sedlec cemetery is mentioned in the "Chronicle of Zbraslav" in 1291/1292, while the Cemetery Church of All Saints appears in a document dated May 28, 1409. Recent archaeological research has added considerably more detail to that paper trail.

Then came catastrophe. A famine struck in 1318, followed by the plague epidemic of 1348–1350. Archaeologists have identified mass graves associated with both episodes. Research published in 2026 found 1,861 excavated burials at the site by the end of 2025, including 33 mass graves. Of 907 individuals studied from the mass graves, 322 were subadults.

The evidence also corrects some of the popular mythology surrounding the Ossuary. The cemetery certainly contains remains connected to medieval mortality crises, but the often-repeated claim that a single epidemic deposited tens of thousands of bodies there oversimplifies a cemetery that accumulated burials over several centuries.

When The Bones Became Art

The present Ossuary occupies the lower chapel of the two-storey Cemetery Church of All Saints, constructed after the cemetery's burial ground became increasingly crowded. Archaeological evidence places the building's construction after the 1380s, with the foundations cutting through earlier mass graves.

But when did people begin arranging the bones decoratively? That part of the story is less certain.

A popular account dates an early arrangement to 1511 and attributes it to a partially blind monk. Other studies note that the exact date of the first decorative arrangement is unknown. The year 1511 appears in 19th-century regional histories, while a 17th-century source indicates that the bones had already been arranged for nearly two centuries. The safest conclusion is that organised bone decoration probably developed between the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

The Ossuary changed again in the early 18th century. Architect Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel repaired the Church of All Saints and is credited with the first major skeletal decoration conceived as part of the chapel's Baroque aesthetic. His approach was deeply rooted in the memento mori tradition: reminders of death were intended to encourage contemplation of mortality and the possibility of resurrection.

The version visitors recognise today, however, owes much to František Rint.

After Emperor Joseph II dissolved the Cistercian monastery in 1783, the Schwarzenberg family assumed patronage of the church and Ossuary. In the 19th century, they commissioned a major restoration. Rint completed the work in 1870, cleaning and arranging the skeletal remains into the chandelier, garlands, pyramids, and the Schwarzenberg coat of arms. His own signature, too, was executed in bone.

The result is extraordinary precisely because it sits between sacred art and human remains. The central chandelier is assembled from skeletal elements and represents the range of bones in the human body. Around it are pyramids of skulls and bones, while the Schwarzenberg crest includes the family's heraldic raven pecking at the eye of a defeated Ottoman figure.

Visiting The Sedlec Ossuary And Kutná Hora

The Ossuary is still a functioning sacred space, which explains one of its most important visitor rules: photography is prohibited inside. The lower chapel has limited capacity and entry is by timed ticket. The visit itself is self-guided and is limited to 30 minutes, although the upper chapel can be explored without the same time restriction.

The official opening hours are 9 am – 5 pm in March and October, 9 am – 6 pm from April to September, and 9 am – 4 pm from November to February. Adult admission to the Sedlec Area, covering the Ossuary and the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady and St John the Baptist, is CZK 220. Tickets can be bought online or at the Sedlec Information Centre at Zámecká 279.

The Ossuary is also undergoing a long-term restoration that began in 2014 and is expected to continue until at least 2030, although the site remains open. Restoration includes structural work and the careful conservation of the bone decoration. The site is also introducing its Memento Mori exhibition.

From Prague, Kutná Hora is roughly 80 km away. By train, the journey from Prague's main station takes around an hour, with a local connection for the final stretch towards the historic centre. From central Kutná Hora, Sedlec is about 2 km away.

And don't leave after seeing the bones. Kutná Hora's historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, shaped by the silver boom that made it one of medieval Bohemia's richest cities.

The Gothic St Barbara's Church is the town's great architectural statement, while the Italian Court recalls its role as a royal mint and seat of the Bohemian rulers. The Czech Museum of Silver goes underground with visitors into the town's mining history. Back in Sedlec, the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady and St John the Baptist provides a striking architectural counterpoint to the Ossuary: one celebrates monumental space and light, the other confronts you with death on a much more intimate scale.

That contrast is perhaps the best way to understand Kutná Hora. The Ossuary may be the town's most unsettling sight, but it is not a curiosity detached from its surroundings. Its bones are the physical record of the city that grew around silver mines, survived epidemics and wars, and repeatedly rebuilt itself. Beneath the chandelier, the story is not really about death. It is about how a medieval town chose to remember its dead.

The Information

Ossuary: Cemetery Church of All Saints, Zámecká 279, Kutná Hora–Sedlec, Czechia

Opening hours: March & October, 9 am – 5 pm; April–September, 9 am – 6 pm; November–February, 9 am – 4 pm

Admission: CZK 220 for adults; Sedlec Area ticket includes the Ossuary and Cathedral

Visit duration: Maximum 30 minutes in the lower chapel

Tickets: Timed entry; book online or at the Sedlec Information Centre

Photography: Not permitted inside

From Prague: Around 1 hour by train to Kutná Hora, followed by a local connection towards Sedlec

FAQs