In the year 1142, a group of Cistercian monks founded a monastery near the village of Sedlec, some 70 km east of Prague, and began cultivating the land. In 1278, the Bohemian king, Premysl Otakar II, sent the Abbot of Sedlec on a diplomatic mission to the Holy Land. When he returned from Jerusalem, the Abbot had brought with him a handful of earth from Golgotha which he sprinkled over the monastery cemetery. As a result, the cemetery became famous throughout all of Central Europe. During the 14th century, the cemetery was enlarged to accomodate the rising number of pestilence victims. In fact, in one year alone - 1318 - almost 30 000 people were buried there. It was again enlarged during the religious Hussite wars of the 15th century.

After 1400, the Abbot had a gothic style church built in the centre of the cememtery, dedicating it to All Saints. Due to the popularity of the cemetery as a final resting place (as a result of the holy soil from Jerusalem), it was impossible to accommodate everyone, and so it became necessary to remove the remains from older graves and re-use the limited space. Therefore, a chapel was built in the basement of the church to hold the bones from the abandoned graves. This collecting of bones was begun by a half blind monk around the year 1511. This ossuary was renovated in a Baroque style between 1703 - I710. In 1870, a wood-carver from Ceské Skalice, Frantisek Rint, began using the discarded bones as a means of decoration, creating a chandelier, two giant chalices, and, most interesting of all, the coat-of-arms of the Schwarzenberg family.

Chandelier, bordered by Pinnacles	Chalice	Cross