Lost Souls

“Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.” ~Haruki Murakami

Death is never really an easy thing to talk about especially in this case. The concept of death is still a little unnerving for me. Today as we walked inside the Bone Church, I found myself feeling a tad conflicted. If you were to look at the Bone church at face value, you would be mesmerized by the incredibly intricate details all around the interior of the church. But, if you feel like I feel; you will find yourself with slight chills running down your back. All the elaborate details that make the church so beautiful are also what make it quite eerie and a tad appalling. The fact that there are thousands upon thousands of skulls and bones being used as decoration leave me with an uneasy feeling. I want to appreciate the beauty in the intricate art, but I feel saddened for all the lost souls.   

The decorations and sculptures were created by a woodcarver named František Rint. In 1870, he was commissioned by the landowners of the time to decorate the chapel with the bones. He was given this task to help create a reminder of the impermanence of human life and inescapable death.

** Fun Fact: The chapel now contains the bones of up to 40,000 people **