Catholic Church in Europe built with human bones inside.?

Question

I believe it was on the Travel Channel TV program.

Answer 1

There are more than one.

The Roman Catacombs, underground cemeteries created by Christians and Jews to avoid burial amongst 'heathens' in Italy's many necropoles.

Also there is the Kutná Hora Ossuary, which is a church in a small town east of Prague decorated with thousands of skulls and bones. The chandeliers are composed of femurs, ribs, tibias and hipbones. Skulls grin at you everywhere. Created due to either a grisly history or space restrictions, depending on the case.

In Hallstatt, Austria, The Chapel of Bones in the centre of the cemetery contains over 600 skulls. Each one is dated, named and decorated - men with ivy patterns and the women with roses. And the bones? Well, there's only so much room...

Paris' catacombs may be the largest single repository of thee deceased in the world. And they are open to the public. After the French Revolution, the city government decided to rework the city's layout to reduce congestion. Kind of a house cleaning, or an 'out with the old, in with the new' mentality. Well, they did a pretty thorough job, which included transferring the contents of most of the city's cemeteries into an official ossuary. The skeletons of six million Parisians were carefully exhumed and piled along old quarry tunnels beneath the city. It's a mile-long walk beneath the city - Paris' own Golden Mile.

Paris is creepy, but Palermo is positively ghoulish. Over the centuries people nearing the ends of their lives would enter an underground crypt to choose a niche where they would rest eternally. After their funerals, they would be hung up to desiccate, dressed in their formal clothes. Entering the Cappuccin Crypt is not for the faint-hearted, as you are confronted with 8,000 cadavers.

Answer 2

That would be the Church of the Capuccini in Rome. Its official name is Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini and it is located in the Via Veneto, just off Piazza Barberini.

The famous part of the church is the ossury, a vault where the bones of more than 4000 Capuchin friars are decoratively displayed on the walls and ceilings.

Answer 3

There are many catholic churches with human bones inside including most of the major cathedrals and the Vatican. It was customary to bury great people in the churches and many churches had catacombs.

Answer 4

There is one in in Évora, Portugal. It was build in the 16th century by a Franciscan monk and wished to transmit the message of life being transitory. It's quite lugubrious. The number of skeletons was calculated to be about 5000!

Answer 5

That's bizaaaaaaaare. Were the bones supplied by the Catholic mofia?

Answer 6

Aren't the bones in the basement?

Answer 7

I think there will be many for you to choose from. try the fodor's web site for info.