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An ossuary is a
place where the
bones of the dead
are kept. Most often,
an ossuary is an
urn or a vault,
but perhaps the
worlds most fascinating
such place is the
Ossuary Chapel in
the Czech Republic.
An adjoining cemetery
started in the 12th
Century beside a
newly founded monastery.
In the following
century, an abbot
returned from a
pilgrimage to the
Holy Land with soil
from Jerusalem which
he poured over the
cemetery grounds.
As a result, the
cemetery was the
desired burial place
for all the local
populace. The wars
and plagues of the
Middle Ages soon
filled the grounds
with tens of thousands
of corpses.
When the cemetery
was filled to capacity,
the oldest remains
were unearthed to
be stored in the
All Saints Chapel,
built in the 14th
Century.
It was in 1870 that
Frantisek Rint,
a woodcarver, began
to decorate the
chapel from the
piles of ancient
bones. Among his
creations is the
coat of arms of
the Schwarzenberg
family who had bought
the Chapel, and
a chandelier using
every bone in the
human body.
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