Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Not So Wordless Wednesday: Wroclaw #5


Photo credit: Atlasobscura.com 

If my family were to rank the coolest thing we saw on this trip to Poland, it would be this - Kaplica Czaszek, or Chapel of the Skulls.  For all you plague lovers out there, this is going to blow your mind.

In honor of Cholera and other plague victims, as well as various skirmishes, a priest built this chapel out of their bones in 1776.  In the chapel itself, there are 3,000 souls represented.  In a crypt below the chapel (which we were able to peek into), another 21,000 skeletons reside.  It is truly a creepy creepy thing.  We were not able to take photos inside (I wanted to try surreptitiously with my iPhone, but a scary nun was eye-balling us) so I have used one I got from the Internet. 

12 comments:

bermudaonion said...

Oh my gosh, I'm not sure I could walk in there - just the picture of that creeps me out.

Peppermint Ph.D. said...

Whoa. That's about all I can think of to say. Whoa.

Melissa said...

This is really creepy, but kinda cool at the same time. I'm sure it was amazing to see in person.

Zibilee said...

Oh Wow! As a fellow plague enthusiast, I bet you can imagine how much I would have loved to see this, and I love that the whole experience even came with a creepy nun! This is so blood-chilling and amazing! The next time you go to Poland, I am hiding in your luggage!

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

I've heard about this place for years and I've always wanted to see it. It sounds aamazingly creepy and yet fascinating.

Darlene said...

OMG is all I can say. I would not be able to walk in there at all. Yikes!

Anonymous said...

Yowza!

Beth(bookaholicmom) said...

Oh my! Now that is fascinating in a creepy sort of way.

Heidenkind said...

Whoa! I was not expecting that.

caite said...

sculls and plague...what a cool family outing!
love the roof on that chapel.

Natalie~Coffee and a Book Chick said...

Oh, this reminds me of a chapel my husband and I visited in Rome for the Capuchin monks and they also designed an extremely wild and macabre display of bones of their brothers (apparently, something about not being able to rebury them once the body is moved), and it was sooo creepy! We couldn't take pictures inside either, but the design also happened around the 1700s. Creepy stuff, huh?

Kathleen said...

That chapel is so creepy but at the same time so intriguing.