Many readers wrote in to follow up on recent BoingBoing posts on churches and tombs built from human remains (one, two). Here are some of your suggestions.
Reader Brennen says, "I stayed in Prague for a few days this summer, and blogged about a day-trip to Kutna Hora. The cathedral is spectacular; the ossuary is just weird. One skull might be shocking – several thousand used as decorative elements are bizarrely mundane. Incidentally, I'm told that a portion of the recent Dungeons & Dragons flick was filmed at Kutna Hora." Link
RLD says, "Here are more photos of the Sedlec Ossuary. Very interesting." Link.
JPA in Portugal writes, "After reading your entries about the churches in Poland and near Prague, I should mention that in Portugal we also have a couple of those. The most famous is called Capela dos Ossos, or Bone Chapel. It is smaller than the ones you mention, but no less interesting." Link
Joe Goldberg says, "Saw your post on the Kostnice bone ossuary, and I have a few images of it as well, that capture the scale of what 40,000 dead dudes look like. See: Link, Link, And a coat of arms made of at least one of every bone in the human body: Link."
BoingBoing pal Quinn says, "Even I have a set of pics from the ossuary outside of Prague, with a couple of shots up on flickr: Link."
Mark Gallagher says, "I used to live near a cathedral in Germany that was situated on the narrowest point of the Rhine river. This area was a pretty popular spot for armed conflict throughout the ages even as recently as WWII, when Patton made a fuss about pissing in the river there when crossing on the way to Berlin. Anyway, the story goes that the local cathedral always had kind of a shortage of hallowed ground for burying people due to all the medieval bloodshed, and at one point just resorted to warehousing a lot of the fallen soldiers to make way for more traditional burials for VIPs. I can't seem to find my own photography, but here's a link to a good one. I'm going to say that it looks a lot more impressive in person, but here it is: Der Beinhaus in Oppenheim."
And reader Zizkov in the Czech Republic writes, "Read about the ossuary on BoingBoing. I visited it last year and found it macabre and grotesque, though perhaps not quite as grotesque as the gambolling snaphappy backpackers (mainly American) who were there at the same time. I'm not exactly an ancestor worshipper but I found the general visitor behaviour, uh, distasteful. As I recall, entrance was 35 Kc and a photo pass the same, that is, around $2.50 all in. Many individual opinions available at virtualtourist.com (search keyword: ossuary). For those interested in ossuarys, here is another in Rome: Link. 4,000 Capuchin friars (I passed this one by when in Rome). Merry Christmas — or whichever festivity you may be celebrating."
Thanks to all.
