In my early childhood I remember finding an old picture postcard that I have never forgotten.  It is one of those memories that are fuzzy on the details, so I don't remember exactly when or where I found it, but the image on the postcard is still vivid in my mind.  It was an orange-ish, faded photo of a grand chandelier made entirely of human bones and it was surrounded on all sides by skeletal garlands.  I was amazed that such a thing could exist outside the world of the old Universal horror films we watched on the UHF stations after school.  At that point in my life I had attended several churches and none of them had anything like this.  I imagined that it was hung in a dark, subterranean cathedral on the other side of the world, perhaps put there by some order of heretical priests.  Maybe it was crafted from the remains of ritual human sacrifices, or possibly fashioned from the bodies of unbelievers as a warning to fear God.  It wasn't until many years later that I discovered the picture was taken inside the Czech ossuary at Sedlec.  From then on, I was determined to make my way there someday.



On March 31, 2008, I boarded a train from Prague to Kutna Hora. When I arrived at the ossuary, I found it not to be the unholy, cavernous place I had imagined as a boy, but a small, unused chapel in the shadow of a much larger and more majestic cathedral.  But despite its humble size, its power was undeniable.  This was a unique space: both a stunning work of art and a mass grave; a sacred place adorned with the mortal remains of thousands of the faithful.  As I wandered through and photographed the space, I tried to capture the ossuary both as I saw it now and how I had imagined it as a kid.  I would like to think this book is not only a visual record of my visit to the Sedlec Ossuary, but also a tour of my macabre boyhood dreams.