Plague Columns
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...