Back to anatomy class
Trip Start
Aug 25, 2007
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15
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Trip End
Mar 25, 2008
Kutna Hora, Czech Republic
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
to the Chapel of All Saints first and the gothic St. Barbara's
Cathedral next. The Ossuary ws Built in 1870, the cemetary behind the
church was popular. But when the plague hit, demand exceeded
supply.There was not enough space to accommodate people. In one year
alone 30,000 were buried. So the blind church caretaker decided to
utilize these bones as decorations. He stacked the bones (mainly
femurs and skulls) without using glue or nails into 4 chapels.
Supposedly there are remains from at least 40,000 people in the ossuary. I think there
were a disaporportionate number of femurs in the church. Granted we
have two each but everywhere I saw, there were femurs and ilia. The
huge chandellier had different levels. The upper protion had ilia,
sacrum, strings of phalanges and mandibles hanging down. The most
interesting was the Schwartenzberg coat-of-arms. I counted 52 fibulas
making up only one corner of the shield alone.
