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Before heading back to Germany, we made a detour to the Bone Ossuary at Sedlec. Considered a holy burial ground in the Middle Ages, tens of thousands of plague victims were buried here. Eventually the monastery decided to put the land to better use, and the bodies were dug up and stored in the ossuary. By the 19th century, it was decided to put the old bones to good use as artwork for the chapel. A carpenter was hired to decorate the ossuary with chandeliers, a crest, and gothic-style buildings made out of the old bones. An eerie place, to be sure.
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Western Europe
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