
Church of All Saints - Kutná Hora-Sedlec, , Czech Republic
Posted by:
ToRo61
N 49° 57.667 E 015° 17.298
33U E 520678 N 5534346
Church of All Saints with ossuary in Sedlec
Waymark Code: WM16MD6
Location: Středočeský kraj, Czechia
Date Posted: 08/27/2022
Views: 4
The church has a baroque decoration of human skeletal remains of 40,000 dead. It is said that Abbot Henry II emptied a chest of earth from the Holy Sepulchre around the chapel, which he brought here from Jerusalem at the beginning of the 14th century. Since then, the cemetery has been used for burials of the non-Jews, local people, but also rich people from all over Bohemia, Moravia and Austria. However, it should be remembered that at that time the cemetery is said to have extended towards Malino almost to the embankment of the later railway line from Sedlec to Kolín. This postcard "From Sedlec u Kutná Hora" is one of a series of fifteen postcards from Kutná Hora produced by Poto-fon. The owner of this Prague company, Vladimír Jindra, was one of the most important producers of photopostcards in Czechoslovakia in the first half of the 20th century.
"At the end of the 18th century, the reforms implemented by Joseph II led to the abolishment of the abbey, with the church caming into the possession of the Schwarzenberg family of Orlík, who had the original Baroque SKELETAL DECORATION, probably created according to the plans of the brilliant architect J. B. SANTINI Aichl, repaired and finished in 1870 by František Rint, their woodcarver and master builder. The cemetery church with the Ossuary is a unique cultural and historical monument and the SEDLEC CEMETERY is thus the aim of the travels of not only people whose loved ones are buried there, but also of thousands of visitors from all the countries of the world. The LEANING church is currently undergoing a demanding total reconstruction, part of which includes making the outdoor terraces accessible and implementing a new conceptual solution for visitor traffic, while preserving the original legacy of its unique MEMENTO MORI skeletal decorations associated with the hope for resurrection."
Source and more information: (
visit link)