I have to open the theme week with an old favorite of mine: the Seldec Ossuary in the Czech town of Kunta Hora. It is the final resting place of well over 40,000 people, many of whom now decorate the chapel with their mortal remains.

As the story goes, in the 13th century abbot Henry of Seldec made a pilgrimage to the holy land in Palestine and brought back sacred soil to scatter on the cemetery grounds. The cemetery rapidly became one of the most popular places to be buried in all of Europe…

Particularly during the era of the Black Plague, thousands flocked to Seldec from all over the continent when death was imminent. Many brought relatives and loved ones to be buried there, believing a space in this hallowed ground guaranteed a place in heaven.

The chapel itself was constructed around 1400, and the sheer volume of the interred continued to increase. Eventually, many of the remains were exhumed from the graveyard and stored in the crypt to make room for new bodies. A few centuries later, the artist Frantisek Rindt was hired to decorate the chapel. His artistic medium? The dead.

One of his first constructions, the “Coat of Arms” was a tribute to Prince Shwartzenberg’s family (his employer):

The decoration is rumored to have been finished around 1870. Today, the Seldec Ossuary functions as a regular Christian church. I hesitate to admit this in public, but I always thought this would be a memorable place to get married.

Here is the most elaborate source I’ve found for the ossuary.
There is a wonderful gallery here.