Sedlec Ossuary Project

As the physical on-site renovations of the Sedlec Ossuary continue, we are also diving deeper into our own photos from Sedlec in order to digitally reconstruct various decorative elements in 3D, using the latest photoscanning technology. We have been able to virtually piece together Rint's designs, bone by bone. The first object we tackled was the iconic chalice in the entranceway to Sedlec. This wasn't easy, since the actual bone chalice resides inside an exedra, or semicircular recess, and could not be removed or photographed from the back. The next object we digitally recreated was the monstrance from the altar, also set back into it's own arched niche. And now we have just completed the chandelier centerpiece of the ossuary. Future plans include recreating the column of skulls, and the Schwarzenberg coat of arms. Part of the fun of recreating these objects from our photos has been to count the bones, and place them exactly as Rint had done. It has been akin to an elab...

Happy summer!!! We've been very, very busy over here lately at the Sedlec Ossuary Project. As you may know, we have made some of our photography available as luster and metallic art prints here , in response to all the requests we have gotten from our followers. These, of course, are professionally shot, high quality photographs, taken with permission from the Roman Catholic Parish of Kutna Hora. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of these prints will be donated to the Roman Catholic Parish of Kutná Hora-Sedlec, for the restoration efforts and preservation of the future of the Sedlec Ossuary. Thanks to all the encouragement we have gotten about compiling our Sedlec photos, we are in the very early stages of laying out a book design of our photography, artwork, and stories inspired by Sedlec. We wanted to share this news with you, and will be posting a teaser mock-up of the book on our Instagram . Head over there and let us know what you think! We are also experimenting with ...

As we were regrettably reminded recently with Notre Dame, historic structures, or even parts of them, can be here one day and gone the next. Thankfully, we live in a time where digital technology allows us to preserve them through photographs, video, and even 3D scanning. Collecting this type of data on our historical structures is so important, and has been a crucial aid to those working to rebuild the parts of Notre Dame that were lost to fire. 3D scanning is currently being used at Sedlec to capture the current state of the entire ossuary, before cleaning and restructuring, to help restorers reassemble the pieces as close to their original arrangement as possible. Back in 2016, when we first heard about the beginning stages of the restorations at Sedlec, we approached the Roman Catholic Parish of Kutna Hora-Sedlec for permission to use non-invasive photogrammetry 3D scanning to assist in collecting and preserving this data about the ossuary. Photogrammetry is essentially the proce...

For those of you who have followed our journey since the beginning, thank you so much for your support! For those who have recently joined us along the way, welcome to this adventure. Please allow us to introduce ourselves, as we continue with our passionate drive to show you the secrets and inspirations of this incredible place. Robert ( @Mechanical_Whispers_Art ) is a visionary artist, photographer, and motion graphics & 3D developer. Nadia ( @VodaZNY ) is a storyteller, photographer, designer, and architect. We are driven by our love of ancient artifacts, buildings, and landscapes, and all the stories they hold. We dreamt up this idea to preserve the history of the Sedlec Ossuary through our photography, artwork, writings, and beyond. This is a story of Sedlec Ossuary, in our words and through our eyes, past, present, and future. We are so very grateful for all of you who been enjoying & following it. And we hope it continues to grow as more people get inspired and share o...

Our story so far has brought you all way from the grand entrance of the ossuary, with its intricate chalices & garlands, down the staircase, and around the main room to admire the oldest relics of Sedlec, the bone pyramids compiled by the blind monk. Continuing on, to learn the history of the Schwarzenberg’s coat of arms made of bones, and then over to the altar with its terrifyingly beautiful monstrances. And finally ending up in the center of the room, to stand between the four marbled columns of skulls, and stone crypt in the floor. And now, above you, is Rint's most striking creation in the Bone Church - the magnificent chandelier. This impressive centerpiece is made from thousands of bones, and consists of at least one of every bone in the human body. The chandelier stands 2.6 meters tall and 2.25 meters in diameter, with eight arms arching gracefully from its main suspended column. But of course, in place of traditional ornate materials, bones are used, meticulously, to r...

In the center of the ossuary, four tapered columns surround a rectangular vault in the floor. Each of the columns has a beautifully painted faux marble finish on the wooden structure, in blue-grey tones, with contrasting faux white marble painted wainscoting inserts in the pedestal. In typical ossuary fashion, instead of the normal column base, you will find 3 wooden carved skulls with snakes slithering in and around them. Each skull is unique, and found on all 3 main sides of each triangular column. While the skull and snake are often seen as a symbol of man's mortality, snakes are also recognized as a symbol of humanity as a whole. But is there a significance to the fact that these columns are three-sided? Since many of the remains belonged to plague victims, it is possible that Santini's vision was a tribute to “plague columns”, that are found all over Europe. These columns represent people's solace at the end of the plague epidemic, and the 3 sides would symbolize the t...

One of the most monumental and iconic decorations created by Rint in the ossuary, is the House of Schwarzenberg coat of arms made entirely out of human bones. We do not know if its creation was ordered by Orlik of Schwarzenberg, or if Rint created it on his own to express his gratitude to his employer. Regardless, it is an impressively detailed creation, and one of the centerpieces of the ossuary. It can currently be found hanging in the lower area of the ossuary, in front of one of the pyramid of bones in the left transept. But what few people know, is that its original placement was at the entranceway above the staircase. Parts of Rint's design can still be seen above the stairs, in the form of bones and skulls hanging like drapes, which used to flank the sides of the coat of arms, and represented the princely cloak. Those who are familiar with historic coats of arms will no doubt recognize some of the symbols that Rint artistically reinterpreted out of bones. Perhaps the first...