In Sedlec, a suburb of Kutna Hora in the Czech Republic, lies the extraordinary crypt of the Cemetery Church of All Saints. The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of perhaps 50,000 people, in arrangements that are quite bizarre. Apparently the Abbot of the Monastery located here visited Jerusalem in 1278 and returned with some soil from Golgotha (the site of Jesus’ crucifixion). As a result the church became immensely popular for internments. The ossuary was created in the 15th century but today’s arrangements are the result of work in 1870 by a local woodcarver.
