There are well known chandeliers and there are infamous chandeliers and all that lies between them. Chandeliers were originally designed to illuminate. The term chandelier originates from the French word for candle; chandelle. They have been made from wood, tin, elk horns, and nearly every material imaginable. Lumber had an innate problem because of woods relationship to fire. iron chandeliers became very popular because metal doesn’t burn. 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.

The chapel Ossuary of Sedlec rests in a suburb of the town of Kunta Hora. It is part of a Roman Catholic Church with a long history. It is part of the Church of All Saints, and the ossuary sits beneath it. An ossuary is a room or building where skeletons of those buried can be collected and interred. 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. Ossuaries can be a chest, a room, a cavern, or a building. The bones and skulls are often arranged reverently and even artistically. Few are 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 reduced the amount of space available. 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 prime real-estate for dead bodies. The news spread 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 contains something 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 great enthusiasm. He built a Schwarzenberg coat of arms out of bones, but this was nothing compared to the other projects. Rintz created a giant chandelier made up of human skeletal remains. It contains all the bones found in the body and has skulls sitting on top of clavicles keeping the candle wax from dripping off the skulls. Femurs hang like crystals, and skulls are placed through out. Above it garlands of skulls and bones drape from the rafters.

Chandeliers have a long and respected history. They have often been designed to create awe and wonder. The Sedlec Ossuary chandelier is at once captivating and terrifying.