The Bone Church: Real and Imagined

If you love the spiritual, the macabre, a place where stories are made, then you must visit The Ossuary at Sedlec, or The Bone Church of Kutna Hora as it's more commonly known. The Bone Church is one of those rare places that transcends expectations and leaves most visitors dumbstruck in the most glorious, soul-quenching way. It sits about an hour outside of Prague in the Czech Republic, and the only feature that advertises that there just might be more than meets the eye to The Bone Church is the skull and crossbones spiked at the top of its spire – right where you’d usually see a crucifix. Otherwise, the place just sits there like Boris Karloff without make-up. But when you go inside, it's another world. A short staircase will lead you down into the chamber, where an enormous chandelier lords over the place. It's fashioned entirely of human bone – utilizing every bone in the human body. There are urns made primarily of femurs, a bone Coat of Arms belonging to the Schwarzenberg family, an endless garland of skulls strung loosely along the trim like it's Christmas, and several pyramids constructed of bones – ones that sit in iron-barred enclaves like slayed prisoners. It should be eerie, but it is exquisite. And as I guide you around the The Bone Church, and past another UNESCO World Heritage site, the Gothic cathedral of The Church of the Assumption of our Lady and St. John the Baptist, I'll illuminate you not only about the region's past, but it's more recent history under the Soviet Union, then finally it's transformation into a parliamentary democracy. It's an amazing journey. If I could, I'd stop at a pub and drink a tall Czech beer with you after the tour, just to talk more about what we've seen. But I'm afraid I'll have to leave that to you.

Price: £4.99 from VoiceMap