Dark Tourism Photography: Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora

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Hey there my Hive friends and followers!

I´m really glad that I managed to find some time to prepare another post about our recent trip to Kutna Hora. After showing you the majestic St. Barbara Church here on my blog last week, I´m going to introduce you to another very popular landmark of this amazing historical town and that´s the Sedlec Ossuary.

Ossuaries are special sites that can come in a variety of forms but they all have the same function - to hold skulls and bones of dead people, which is why visiting them is sometimes considered a form of the so called "dark tourism" (hence the title of this post).

Let´s start out with a bit of history of this eerie place though. The Sedlec Ossuary is a part of the All Saints Church that is located in the Kutna Hora neighborhood of Sedlec. Originally, the church was a part of a large Cistercian Monastery that was founded on that site in the 12th century. These days, the church consists of two chapels. The upper one looks like a regular chapel and is accessible to the public for free. The lower chapel houses the ossuary.

I really wanted to go inside the ossuary (despite the not exactly cheap entrance fee) to take some photos of it for you guys but to my unpleasant surprise, as I found out on the spot, photographing is strictly prohibited in the ossuary so I decided not to go there. Therefore, the pictures that you will see in this post will only feature those parts of the church and the adjacent cemetery where taking photos was allowed.

Let me start with a picture that actually doesn´t even come from the church complex but it´s clearly related to it and I find it really cool and suitable to serve as the cover shot for this post so here we go... Skull statues that can be found in front of the St. Barbara Church.

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And this is already the entrance to the St. All Saints Church with the ossuary.

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A couple of shots of the church and the cemetery that surrounds it.

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This is the upper chapel.

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A few images depicting some of the bones in the ossuary that I managed to click from the upper chapel and from the main door.

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Informative sign showing some of the bone decorations that are no longer a part of the ossuary.

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I know it´s kind of weird to have a post about something without the photos of the most interesting part of it but I don´t want to use other people´s photos here (I think it´s not even allowed in the Photography Lovers community that I submitted this post into) so I just decided to add a few links here where you can find some cool actual pictures of the Sedlec Ossuary. I guess they were taken when it was still allowed...

Sedlec Ossuary from delveintoeurope.com

Sedlec Ossuary from worldatlas.com

Sedlec Ossuary from outdoortipy.cz

Sedlec Ossuary from 123rf.com

Sedlec Ossuary from itras.cz

I hope you got some idea after checking out the links. From what I found on the internet, the Sedlec Ossuary is home to skulls and bones of approximately 60,000 dead people. As you could see, many of those skeletons were used as decoration of the ossuary.

We visited the place on a beautiful sunny summer day and it still gave me the creeps so I can only imagine what it feels like to be in the ossuary or on the cemetery at night or on a dark foggy autumn day... Definitely qualifies as a dark tourism site if you ask me :)

To find out the exact location of the Sedlec Ossuary, feel free to check out the Pinmapple, I pinned it there ;)

This post was created by me for the Hive blockchain exclusively. All rights reserved.

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A place full of history and very interesting to know through this article complemented with very good quality photographs. Thank you very much for sharing your excellent work @phortun friend!!!

https://twitter.com/jalp21/status/1679171622182305794

#POSH

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!PIZZA

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Thank you amigo! Much appreciated as always :)

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Amazing place man, This visit must have been very nice. 😀

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Thanks :) Maybe next time, I will go inside as well...

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The statue is very beautiful
If I may ask, is it at the front of the church or opposite the church?
I want to understand that

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You mean the skull statue from the first picture? That one is actually located in front of another church in the same town, I mentioned it in the text...

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Hey friend, excellent 😍 post, I loved it, thanks for sharing. I am a biologist 👀, I specialize in Forensic Anthropologist 💀 and I love the history that the human skeleton ☠️ provides. Ossuaries are really fabulous places for me. I really enjoyed reading your post. I follow you 👌

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Oh wow! I´m really honored to have such a nice feedback from someone who works in "this industry" :D I can see you are from Cuba, are there any ossuaries in Latin America too? I mean I lived there (in Mexico and also visited a bunch of other Latino countries including Cuba) but I didn´t see anything like this in there...

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I think the words "Dark Tourism" suits, however, I would lile to visit such a place. It would be so interesting as I visited one in Milano, Cimitero Monumentale di Milano. It is very very interesting, I felt myself in a horror movie :)

Thanks for the post mate!

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I just googled out that Milan cemetery, very interesting place. But ossuaries are another level. It´s just skulls and bones everywhere around you. Honestly, I don´t even know why such places were built in the past... Glad to know that you enjoyed this post though ;) Cheers!

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Wow!! I've never been to an ossuary, despite the ghoulishness, it's great for photography!

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Yeah, nothing for the faint hearted for sure but still very photogenic in some (creepy) way :) Thanks for stopping by Sofia!

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A pity they don't allow photography inside... 💀

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It was interesting places . I definitely will come and visit this place if i got oppurtunity to come there in future. Thanks for sharing

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Thanks for your feedback, I´m glad to know that this post inspired you to put my country on your travel list :) Cheers!

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Vôbec som nevedela, že máte niečo také v Čechách. Pozrela som fotky z odkazov, čo si dal na koniec a myslím, že ja by som šla, aj keď by som nemohla robiť fotky 🙂 Ale zas rozumiem, že si tam išiel práve kvôli fotkám, tak sa ti to neoplatilo.

60000 ľudí.. zaujímalo by ma odkiaľ sú tie kostry..

Ale pravdu povediac, je to zvláštné turistické miesto 😁

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Já jsem o té kostnici věděl, protože jsem o ni v minulosti několikrát psal :) Dělal jsem kdysi staff writera pro jeden americký web se zajímavostmi a dělal jsem pro ně i nějaké články na téma "creepiest places in the world" apod. a při pátrání na netu jsem párkrát narazil i na tu kostnici právě... Ale naživo jsem ji poprvé viděl až teď :) Teda viděl... vlastně ne tak docela, ale rozumíme si :D

Odkud jsou ty kostry, to je taky zajímavé. Pomůžu si odstavcem z ofiko webu...

"Poté, co podle pověsti jeden ze sedleckých opatů, který do Jeruzaléma cestoval s diplomatickým poselstvím, přivezl z Hakeldamského Pole (posvátné místo v Jeruzalému) hrst hlíny a rozprášil ji na Sedleckém hřbitově, stal se tento hřbitov takzvaným Svatým Polem, nejstarším ve střední Evropě. To vyvolalo zájem o pohřeb v Sedlci a tak se sedlecký hřbitov začal rozrůstat."

Chápu to prostě tak, že být pochovaný v Sedlci bývalo v minulosti velkou poctou a byl o to obrovský zájem, tak se jim tam ty ostatky začaly časem hromadit. Tak pro ně potom postavili tu kostnici :)

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The pictures you took of the church and cemetery are beautiful, and they give us a good sense of the atmosphere of the place.

I'm also fascinated by the history of the ossuary. It's amazing to think that all of those bones came from people who lived centuries ago. It's a reminder of the fragility of life and the importance of living each day to the fullest.

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Thanks for checking out the pictures and even the text, I´m glad that you enjoyed this little creepy tour and learned something new too :) Have a nice weekend my friend!

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