Talk:Sedlec Ossuary

Denomination

A small "Christian" chapel... what kind of Christian? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.46.198.230 (talk • contribs)

Catholic (Schwarzenbergs were always catholics, AFAIK) - it's not some cult, but absolutely mainstream (throughout its history) church. Memento mori has some background about the thinking behind the spectacle. 89.102.137.101 15:51, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Coat of arms

The caption to the image of the coat arms says that the skull is that of a Turkish soldier. During my tour, they said the skull represented the Turkish soldier on the Schwarnberg coat of arms, not that the skull was actually that of a Turkish soldier. Can anyone shed any light on this?--Bkwillwm (talk) 23:37, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

I wrote the caption and I can't now support the statement that the skull is actually of a Turkish soldier. I was told that by a guide as well. I'll change it. Thanks! Wilson44691 (talk) 00:42, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Viral e-mails?

From the end of the history section:

In recent years an email has been virally circulating on the internet amongst Arab speaking populations claiming that the bones used to build Sedlec Ossuary are of Muslims who perished during the Crusades

الحقيقة أغرب من الخيال أحيانا

هناك علي بعد 70 كيلومتر من شرق العاصمة جمهورية الشيك مقاطعة بارغوي في مدينة سيدليك ، وهي مدينة تتميز بكنيسة أثرية غير طبيعية ... الكنيسة صغيرة عمرها أكثر من 1000 عام يتميز ديكورها والذي لا يكون من الخشب أو الجبس أو الحجر أو أي مواد طبيعية أو مصنعة ولكن يتكون من عظام المسلمين . فالقصة بدأت في 1218 عندما قام رئيس الدير الرهبان هنري خلال رحلة الحج إلي الأرض المقدسة في خلال الحروب الصليبية بأحضار عظام المسلمين في بيت المقدس من الذين قتلوا لتزين الكنيسة ليكون له فخر وقربى . وفي سنة 1318 تم تجديدها بعظام جديدة تقدر ب 30 ألف جثة أحضرت كذلك لهذا الغرض ... كما تم تجديدها في سنة 1511 بكمية عظام أخرى . وقام النحات في سنة 1870 من دوق شوزنبرك لأعادة ديكور الكنيسة بعظام 40000 جثة ليكون أكثر جمالا ورونقا .

وهي الأن من أشهر الكنائس العالم ليس لقدمها ولكن لزينتها بعظام المسلمين فيها وشاهد علي حقيقة الاجرام الذي يقومون به والذي يسمونه ( الأرهاب )

First of all, I'm not so sure that a viral e-mail is worth noting, unless it's so prominent as to make the news or other reliable third-party sources. Regardless of notability and verifiability, however, this definitely needs to be translated before having even a chance of inclusion. -Bbik^★ 08:32, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Unbelievably stupid http://www.kostnice.cz/info_arab.htm — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.181.208.123 (talk) 17:03, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

It's definitely notable enough to have made a mutated appearance on Environmental Graffiti, on an article about what was actually an unrelated ossuary if I remember correctly. The comments section for some of those pages are...interesting, to say the least.77.103.132.143 (talk) 13:55, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Crusade

Theese muslim bones brought by crusaders after crusade. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ruhsuz (talk • contribs) 19:48, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

• No, they weren't. The information is a hoax spread in a one-off electronic campaign. (No point in mentioning the hoax in the article.) - Mike Rosoft (talk) 08:46, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

World Heritage Site

The inscription of the historic center of Kutná Hora as a World Heritage Site specifically mentions the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady and the Church of Saint Barbara; it does not mention the Church of All Saints or its ossuary. They aren't mentioned in the description or in the "retrospective statement of outstanding universal value". (The Church of All Saints or its ossuary are not a World Heritage Site, except perhaps as a part of the general inscription of the historic city center.) - Mike Rosoft (talk) 08:46, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

• The official website does not mention it being a World Heritage Site, either. The printed commentary also specifically lists the Church of Our Lady and not the ossuary as a World Heritage Site. The key paragraph reads: "Cemetery Church was a part of the oldest Cistercian monastery in Bohemia founded in 1142. Also a unique Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady and St. John the Baptist near by (a UNESCO-listed site since 1995) and a former baroque convent (a seat of a tobacco factory since 1812) were preserved". (It is possible that the claim came from misinterpretation of this paragraph.) Removing. - Mike Rosoft (talk) 09:56, 8 May 2017 (UTC)
• Follow-up: the church with the ossuary is not within the area of the World Heritage Site; it's in its buffer zone. See its entry at Ministry of Culture registry (pamatkovykatalog.cz). - Mike Rosoft (talk) 09:07, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

Why do this?

That seems an obvious questions but it isn't addressed. Why would it be allowed, never mind commissioned (as it must have been)? To my eyes it looks appalling and I understood christians aren't much for disturbing or dismembering bodies (something to do with being whole when judgement day comes). So what was the possible thinking behind so many ornaments of bone? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.211.202.165 (talk) 17:10, 24 June 2018 (UTC)

Boredom, Baroque and bombasticity. Zezen (talk) 13:19, 25 November 2019 (UTC)

Same thought here. Tens of thousands of unknown people were just dug up from their graves and their body parts were used as freaking lego pieces just for entertainment of some rich guy, and that's it? It looks like there are some vital pieces of background info/ideology missing. No historian ever did any research or published any articles, any books? Nobody ever criticized or questioned legality of this? Was there ever an effort to identify these victims and bury them? Nothing of that is mentioned. After reading the article one may assume that it's a common tradition for Czechs to use bones of their deceased relatives as coffee tables or lampshades, so no further explanation is necessary. 46.172.17.253 (talk) 19:50, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

I came looking for similar information, and was disappointed to see little to no information about this. It seems either glossed over or simply missing. At the very least I expected some acknowledgement of the lack of context for this building coming to be; did people just lose their minds after arranging human bones for hundreds of years? Ethanicus (talk) 07:41, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

It's already explained in the history section of the article, albeit not in the clearest fashion. In some parts of the world, graves regularly have their remains disinterred and confined to an ossuary to make room for more recent burials (Greece, for example, cycles them out after three years; Germany after about twenty). More details on that can be found in the already-linked ossuary and charnel house articles. It just happens that an aristocratic family decided to make macabre art out of this ossuary when they acquired it, and it's not the only example of such out there. --Xanzzibar (talk) 15:22, 27 May 2022 (UTC)