Lima’s Monastery of San Francisco, a UNESCO World Heritage site, contains the bones of Lima dwellers until 1808. The catacombs, which are underneath the church, are connected by secret passageways which lead from the chapel to the Tribunal of the Inquisition. Skulls and femur bones can be found arranged in large circular geometric patterns deep within the ground.
+ Monastery of San Francisco

Our Lady of the Conception of the Capuchins

Sedlec Ossuary

Monastery of San Francisco

San Bernardino alle Ossa

Czermna Chapel

Capela dos Ossos

Our Lady of the Conception of the Capuchins

Rome’s Our Lady of the Conception of the Capuchins is decorated with the remains of over 4,000 friars who died between 1500 and 1870. Once visited by the Marquis de Sade, the bones are arranged in Baroque and Rococo style. The skeletons of three friars, resembling Macabre himself, greet visitors to the church.

Sedlec Ossuary

Inspired by Our Lady of the Conception, the Sedlec Ossuary is a small chapel in a suburb in the Czech Republic. The bone chilling chandeliers (made from every bone in the human body), skull lined arches and pyramids are made from 40,000-70,000 skeletons. A half blind monk stacked the bones into pyramids in 1511, but woodcarver Frantisek Rint was commissioned by the Schwarzenberg family to redesign the bones 1870. Rint also designed the Schwarzenberg coat of arms near the entrance.