Sedlec Ossuary is a Roman Catholic ossuary beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints in Sedlec, part of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. The chapel is one of the country’s most famous dark heritage sites, known for its interior decorations made from thousands of human bones.

The ossuary’s history is connected to the medieval Cistercian monastery in Sedlec, the Black Death, the Hussite Wars and the long tradition of storing human remains from overcrowded burial grounds. In 1870, the Schwarzenberg family commissioned woodcarver František Rint to arrange the bones inside the chapel, creating the site’s best-known features, including bone garlands, pyramids, a coat of arms and the large chandelier hanging in the centre of the room.

Sedlec Ossuary also has a connection to black metal album art. A photograph of the ossuary interior by Matthew Septimus was used as the cover image for “Nightwork”, the 1998 album by Diabolical Masquerade, the Swedish black metal project of Anders “Blakkheim” Nyström from Katatonia and Bloodbath. The album also featured Dan Swanö under the alias of “Ingmar Döhn”, known from Edge of Sanity, Nightingale and numerous other metal projects.

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Zámecká, 284 03 Kutná Hora 3, Tsjekkia

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