Positioned around 70 kilometers east of Prague, Kutná Hora houses some of the most beautiful architecture in the whole of Bohemia. Today, Kutná Hora displays a sedate and impressive vision of Czech culture and tradition, hence its UNESCO World Heritage Site status.

But amid its Baroque-style buildings and medieval churches, lies an attraction that's definitely not for the faint-hearted traveler. Take a short walk through the narrow streets of the small suburb of Sedlec and you'll reach a quaint yet eerie chapel. And while the Church All Saints seems rather unassuming from the outside, lurking underneath is an enthralling tale of mystery and death, with bones of over 40,000 have been gathered here....

The interior of the cemetery church, otherwise known as the Chapel of Skulls, was entirely made of bone. You can see crosses, inscriptions and altars from elements of the human skeleton. The huge chandelier and the Schwarzenberg family crest depicting a raven pecking at the severed head a special impression on those entering it. Two large bone chalices, four baroque bone candelabras, six enormous bone pyramids, two bone monstrances, a family crest in bone, and skull candle holders. Festively looping chains of bone are hung throughout like crepe paper at a birthday party...

The church has a long history, beginning in the 13th century when the Abbot of the Sedlec Monastery (Abbot Henry) brought a handful of earth back from a journey to the Grave of the Lord in Jerusalem. He scattered this “holy soil” across the Sedlec cemetery, securing its place as one of the most desired burial sites for people all over Bohemia and the surrounding countries. Everyone, even victims of the plague epidemic that broke out in this area in the fourteenth century, as well as those killed during the Hussite wars and the Thirty Years' War, wanted to be buried in that handful of the Holy Land, but it simply wasn’t enough room for everyone to rest in peace. This changed in the nineteenth century, when with the consent of the church authorities known at that time sculptor and carpenter František Rint, in 1870, was employed for the task of artistically arranging the thousands of bones, created from them elements of the interior design of the church.

You can try an one-hour train ride from Prague, then just walk to the church from the Kutná Hora train station in about ten minutes.

Opening hours: Daily 09:00 – 18:00 (closed on December 24) Ossuary Admission: Child, Student, Senior, Disabled 60 CZK (2.77 USD) – Adult 90 CZK (4.15 USD).