This Creepily Beautiful Chapel in Czermna, Poland, Is Constructed Out of Thousands of Human Bones
kelsonv:
Shin bones decorate the ceiling, skulls line the walls and over 21,000 bodies are buried in the basementWarning for gruesome photos, natch.
I’ll be honest: if I was in the area I’d defnitely visit, but it would still creep me out a bit. I’ve handled real human bones as part of an osteology course and that didn’t bother me, but the sheer number of these would give me the willies.
When I visited Rome, I visited the crypt of the Capuchin monks. The monks used their order’s bones to create amazing patterns in a series of six rooms. It was creepy and yet fascinating. The motto that stuck in my head, which is listed on the Wikipedia page, is “What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be…”
Those guys definitely had a flair for the dramatic; I’d like to see that too. Also want to see the catacombs in Rome and Paris, but I don’t know if those are open to visitors these days.
Reading up on the Paris catacombs. How did Hugo manage not to include these in Les Miserables somewhere?