There are sites that just looking at them will surely give you chills; since they are constructions made or decorated with human bones. Making a tour of these places, mostly religious sites, you will be attracted by a sublime ornamentation, which illustrates a past where the skeletons of human beings were the inspiration, incorporating them into these constructions; a very natural thing in ancient times, being customary to honor the dead, in that way.
Employing that strange practice in our times would be seen as something sinister; however, it is still a matter of interest for many people to visit these spaces, even if it is a bit chilling. Here we offer you an interesting selection of the most relevant constructions, made or decorated with human bones.
“Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic”: it is a chapel, located under the All Saints cemetery church, in the town of “Sedlec”. It contains approximately more than 40,000 human skeletons, forming an attractive decoration, conjugated in the furnishings of the oratory, with the thousands of deaths caused by the black plague in the fourteenth century, as a charnel house for the immense masses unearthed, and it was in 1870, when a wood carver, put in order the piles of bones in the chapel, with bone crowns protecting the domes, impressive samples decorated with human bones.
“Santa Maria della Conzecione dei Cappuccini”: It is a crypt located in Rome, it is divided into five chapels, decorated with human bones of 4,000 Capuchin friars, finding some of them mummified, wrapped in garments; This mausoleum was designed by the architect “Antonio Casoni”, at the request of Pope Urban VIII. It is enclosed by a small enclosure, with the chapels on the sides, adorned with several famous works, such as the Archangel Saint Michael, by the famous Italian painter «Guido Reni».
Bone Chapel in Portugal: is a place that is located in the city of “Évora”, in Portugal, with the walls covered with skeletons mixed in cement; keeping remains of 5,000 corpses. This chapel began to be built in the 16th century, when the Franciscan cemeteries overflowed and many dead had to be unearthed; being used as decoration to adorn the walls, an arduous task, carried out by a single monk.
Catacombs of the convent of San Francisco de Lima: They are located under the temple. It is an overwhelming site, for being an old cemetery in colonial times; nowadays, they are observed in the different rooms, large number of bones, arranged in an aesthetic way, transforming the area into a terrifying room; calculating some 70,000 bones and it is speculated that this construction may be connected to the cathedral, along with other churches in the town, through secret passageways.
It is disturbing and terrifying to attend these places, marked by death; with beings uprooted from the earth, which remain in sight of all people, who dare to visit them. Many were built out of necessity, as you have seen; distinguishing itself today, as an enhancement of these extraordinary constructions, made or decorated with human bones.