There is something morbidly attractive about death. On the one hand, from things related to death, frost goes on the skin. On the other hand, it is impossible to take your eyes off them. In our roundup of 10 incredible images taken in ossuaries and crypts around the world.
1. Massacre of 1480
Remains of victims of the massacre of 1480
The ossuary chapel of Otranto Cathedral in Italy contains the remains of the victims of the 1480 massacre. You can see it behind the central altar of the cathedral, which is decorated with golden candlesticks. The most famous victim of this massacre was a certain Antonio Primaldo. According to legends, Primaldo, who led the defense forces in the attack on the city by the Turks, was the first to be beheaded. Allegedly, his headless body continued to stand upright and nothing could move it. He stood like that until the last of his soldiers was killed.
2. San Martino
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Chapel in San Martino
The ossuary of the chapel in San Martino della Battaglia, Italy, is the most "orderly" of all the "vaults of bones" on this list. Row by row, rack by rack, human remains were neatly and orderly laid out, like books in some eerie library. In total, the bones of 2619 people and 1274 skulls are kept in this chapel.
3. Saint-Hilaire cemetery
The world's most extravagant bone collection
Perhaps the most extravagant collection of bones in the world is kept in the Saint-Hilaire Cemetery in Marville, France. This place is unique in that the skulls are located in small lockers with signatures regarding the "owners" of the remains.
4. Chapel of bones
Portuguese chapel of bones
The Chapel of Bones is located in the Church of Nossa Senhora do Carmo in Faro, Portugal. In addition to the fact that the walls and ceilings of the chapel are completely lined with the bones of deceased members of the religious order of the Carmelites, death can be found here even underfoot: the floor slabs are actually the gravestones of the deceased abbots.
5. Painted skulls
More than 1200 skulls in the Church of St. Michael in Hallstatt, Austria are known for being … painted since the 18th century (skulls are decorated with floral ornaments, leaves, crosses, as well as inscriptions with the name and date of birth and death). Remarkably, the painted skulls are almost all male, since men in Hallstatt usually died before their wives, who decorated the bones in such an unusual way as a sign of memory.
6. Sedlec Ossuary
The Sedlec Ossuary (Ossuary of All Saints) in the Czech Republic is one of the most famous ossuary in the world. It not only contains the bones of people, in this place the bones are used as extravagant deadly jewelry. The church is especially famous for its huge chandelier made entirely of human bones and decorated with garlands of skulls.
7. Virgin
This bone lady can be found in the Chapel of the Virgin in the crypt of the Santa Maria della Pace monastery in Palermo, Italy. She is one of the four skeletons in the so-called "corridor of virgins" of the Capuchin Catacombs, who hold in their hands the symbol of faith - palm leaves.
8. Vincenzo Piccini
The mummy of Vincenzo Piccini
Vincenzo Piccini is the only dressed mummy in the Church of the Dead in the Italian commune of Urbania. The remains of the former abbot of the Franciscan monastery are dressed in the clothes of his former order and decorated with a silver badge with the symbol of death.
9. Saint Pancratius
The bones of St. Pancratius are in the Church of St. Nicholas in Vila, Switzerland. The skeleton was originally clothed in monastic robes (from the late 1600s). But in 1777 (to commemorate the centenary of his bones in Vila), Pancratius's remains were dressed in magnificent custom-made armor.
10. Saint Gratian
Saint Gratian is a martyr, whose remains were dressed in rich garments made of fine fabric, adorned with precious stones. It is known about Saint Gratian that he died for the faith, so his bones stand over a bowl filled with dried blood. His remains are on display at the Waldsassen Basilica in Germany.