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I feel like I've seen pictures of this or a similar church before. Somewhere in Eastern Europe would be my guess.
I feel like I've seen pictures of this or a similar church before. Somewhere in Eastern Europe would be my guess.
Eastern Europe is quite “big”
But the population of churches in Europe is even bigger, so I narrowed it down by perhaps 70%. If you want me to be more specific, I will say Hungary, Romania, Poland, or Slovakia. Just a guess, though.
But the population of churches in Europe is even bigger, so I narrowed it down by perhaps 70%. If you want me to be more specific, I will say Hungary, Romania, Poland, or Slovakia. Just a guess, though.
You're close …
I have been there. We stopped to see it a few years ago when I drove to Czech doing research for my MA thesis. There is another one similar to that in Czermin, Poland but I have not been to see that one.
Purely a guess, but they may have designed a crypt or portion of the church using bones if they were building on top of, or to replace, a pre-existing crypt or burial ground. The idea must have come from the existence of materials available to them in higher quantities. In other words, I would be surprised if they went out of their way to dig up bones from some other place and use them in the church, at least in its initial construction.
The bones are taken from the cemetery outside the chapel. That is typical for European cemeteries where more than one person is buried in the same grave. When they find bones digging a new grave they put them in an ossuary that every cemetery has. Most just don't get creative with the bones. My Father-in-law, who passed away in 2009 is in a grave with 5 other family members. I know they found bones when his grave was dug because the undertaker called my wife to ask if they should put them in the communal ossuary or back into the grave.Below is a phot of my father-in-law's grave from last summer.
Did they know the approximate age of the older bones?
If you are talking about the ones from my Father-in-Law's grave they cannot be more than 150 years old. The cemetery in my wife's hometown was moved in the 1860's to the edge of town. It used to be right outside the church but apparently they ran out of room. Village lore says when they moved it they dug up everything and deposited the bones in a communal grave in the new cemetery. The communal grave is still there by the entrance and the stone says it is the collected remains from the old cemetery. There is also a grave for the parish priests and those without family next to the communal grave.If you are talking about the ossuary in Czech. I am not sure. I think most of the bones are no older than the Black Death or maybe 30 years war, I cannot remember which.
