The Chapel of Skulls — a Baroque memento mori at Kudowa

The chapel's history

In the 18th century Czermna was a small country parish on the Bohemian border. The region had suffered many tragedies in the preceding centuries: the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), in which Bohemia and Silesia were the main theatre; the Silesian wars of the 18th century between the Habsburgs and Prussia; epidemics of cholera, typhus and other diseases; and famine after failed harvests. The cemeteries around the church of St Bartholomew were full of bones, which were dug up and stacked in piles whenever new graves were opened.

Father Wacław Tomaszek (1715–1804), parish priest of Czermna in the second half of the 18th century, took an unusual decision, though a popular one in the Baroque age: rather than cart the bones away, he made a memento mori of them. In 1776 he began gathering remains from the mass graves around the church and using them to decorate the interior of the small cemetery chapel beside it. He worked at it himself for 18 years — arranging the skulls in geometric patterns and choosing those with particular features (deformed by illness, battle injuries, syphilis or childhood paralysis).

The interior

The chapel's interior is entirely covered with skulls and bones — the walls, the ceiling and the altar. In all there are about 3,000 skulls inside, and in the crypt beneath a further about 21,000 bones and skulls (Father Tomaszek himself was finally buried in that crypt, and his skull is among them). The composition is Baroque — the skulls are arranged in arches and geometric patterns that underline the chapel's architecture.

The central place is taken by the altar of skulls — some skulls are clearly identified (the skull of the mayor of Czermna, of a Turkish soldier from the battle of Vienna in 1683, and a skull with a bullet hole). All were cleaned and partly bleached, which gave them their characteristic yellow-brown colour.

Memento mori — the context

The Chapel of Skulls is an example of the Baroque memento mori — the medieval and early modern approach to death, in which bones were to remind the living of the passing of all life. Father Tomaszek was not alone in his age; similar ossuaries exist at:

• The Sedlec ossuary in Bohemia (Kutná Hora) — the most famous, with about 40,000 skeletons
• The Capela dos Ossos at Évora (Portugal)
• The Chapel of Skulls in Rome (Santa Maria della Concezione) — Capuchin
• The Polish Chapel of Skulls is one of the three most famous in Europe
• Most ossuaries are Capuchin or Franciscan — reflecting their theological meditation on poverty and death

In practice

• Address — Czermna (a district of Kudowa-Zdrój), ul. Moniuszki 8
• Ticket — about 6 zł adults, 3 zł children
• Open — seasonally (usually May–October), by arrangement out of season
• Time needed — 20–30 min (the chapel is small)
• For children — with care; some older children do not react well to the sight of real skulls
• Photographs — generally allowed, but without flash
• In the complex — the church of St Bartholomew (17th century) and the parish cemetery

How to get there and practical info

Address

Czermna, ul. Moniuszki 8 (Kudowa-Zdrój)

Ticket

About 6 zł adults, about 3 zł children

Season

May to October (by arrangement out of season)

Time needed

20–30 min

From Kudowa-Zdrój

About 5 min by car

For children

With care — the skulls are real

When to go