Sedlec Ossuary

Other works include piers and monstrances flanking the altar, a coat of arms of the House of Schwarzenberg, and the signature of František Rint, also executed in bone, on the wall near the entrance.

[4][5] Around 1400, a Gothic church was built in the center of the cemetery with a vaulted upper level and a lower chapel to be used as an ossuary for the mass graves unearthed during construction, or simply slated for demolition to make room for new burials.

In 1870, František Rint, a woodcarver, was employed by the Schwarzenberg family to put the bone heaps into order, yielding a macabre result.

In April 2002, German author Jason Dark featured the ossuary in issue 1240 Das Knochenkreuz of his long-running dime novel series Geisterjäger John Sinclair.

[13][14] The bone chandelier was featured on the cover and in the music video for the single "Schwarzer Sarg" by Japanese group Yōsei Teikoku.

A photograph of the chapel's interior was also used as the cover art for the 1998 album Nightwork, by Swedish progressive black metal band Diabolical Masquerade.