No Bones About It : Hamlet And Yorick Had Nothing On This Spooky Chandelier
December 30, 2009
There are famous chandeliers and there are infamous chandeliers and there is everything in between. Chandeliers were once made simply to create better light. The term chandelier comes from the French word for candle; chandelle. Chandeliers have been crafted out of wood, tin, elk horns, and many other materials. Wood presented a problem because wood burns. iron chandeliers became very popular because they were durable. An iron chandelier could be shaped and draped with crystal. Other materials were used to hang lights, and soon chandeliers became an ornamental object. Of all the amazing chandeliers ever made, none is as disturbing as a chandelier hanging in a Gothic church in the Czech Republic.
Sedlec Ossuary sits in Sedlec, a neighborhood outside of the town of Kunta Hora. It is part of a Roman Catholic Church with an ancient and interesting history. It is part of the Church of All Saints, and the ossuary sits beneath it. An ossuary is a place that bones of those buried can be gathered. Burial space is premium property and like an property can see a variety of residence over the years. Prior occupants, unable to move on by themselves are gathered and interned together with many other skeletal remains. This can be a chest, a room, a cavern, or a building. The skeletal remains are often arranged reverently and even artistically. Seldom are the arranged with as much drama as they are in the Sedlec Ossuary.
To put things in the proper context it is important to emphasize the overwhelming demand for burial space and the limited plot. In addition, over the years, expansion of the living has continued to claim land from the dead. Back in the 13th century, when it was a little monastery, an abbot went to the holy land and brought back earth from Golgotha. He spread the sacred dirt about the cemetery making it a desirable place to be buried. Word got out across Europe and soon the dead came knocking. With the plague and Hussite wars the graveyard or church garden was more then full. When a chapel was built an ossuary was included to house the remains dug up to accommodate the building. Today, it is estimated that the Sedlec Ossuary houses between 40,000 and 70,000 skeletal remains.
In the 18th century, a wood carver was hired by the Schwarzenberg family, made up of nobles and counts, to bring order to the Sedlec Ossuary. Frantisek Rintz was the woodcarver that was tasked with arranging the remains. He layed out the skeletons with fantastic energy. He constructed a Schwarzenberg coat of arms out of bones, but this was tame compared to the other projects. Rintz created a giant chandelier made up of human skeletal remains. It contains every bone in the human body and has skulls sitting on top of clavicles to catch the dripping wax. Femurs hang like crystals, and bones are placed through out. Above it garlands of skulls and bones drape from the rafters.
Chandeliers have a lengthy and vaunted history. They are usually made to create awe and wonder. The Sedlec Ossuary chandelier is at once awesome and terrifying.
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