Sedlec Ossuary: The Bone Church

Underneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints, which is situated in the town of Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic, lies the Sedlec Ossuary. Otherwise known as The Bone Church, it is believed that Sedlic Ossuary contains the skeletal remains of between 40,000 and 70,000 people. What makes this particular ossuary unique is the fact that it takes the form of a  Roman Catholic chapel; one elaborately decorated with the bones of the deceased. Understandably, it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Czech Republic drawing an estimated 200,000 visitors per year.

The ossuary's beginning goes back to the year 1278, when King Otakar of Bohemia sent Henry, Abbot of Cedlec's Cistercian Monastery, to the Holy Land. The abbot returned with a jar full of soil he had collected from Golgotha, the alleged site of Jesus' crucifixion. Once Henry sprinkled the jar's contents in the abbey cemetery, that graveyard became one of the most popular burial grounds in Central Europe.

The Black Death arrived on the continent during the 14h century, extinguishing the lives of between 75 to 200 million people. The early15 century saw the beginning of the Hussite Wars, which also claimed many
thousands of lives. Needless to say, many thousands of people were buried in the abbey cemetery as a result of these two occurrences; and due to the dire need for more burial space, the graveyard had to be enlarged.

Around the beginning of the 15th century a Gothic-styled church was constructed in the middle of the cemetery. The church contained a vaulted upper level and a lower chapel intended to serve as an ossuary for all of the skeletal remains unearthed during construction. Older graves were also unearthed in order to make way for newer burials. The bones of these deceased were also stored in the chapel ossuary.

In 1870 the aristocratic Schwarzenberg family commissioned a wood carver named Frantisek Rindt to arrange the chapel's contents into some type of logical order. Mr. Rindt proceeded to decorate and create furnishings to the entire chapel with the human remains he was charged with, thereby making the Sedlec Ossuary one of the world's great macabre spectacles.

        

   












This spectacular chandelier (above), which hovers over the chapel, is said to consist of every bone in the human body.

Have you seen a cross made from leg bones and human skulls before?

Four corners of the chapel consist of huge piles of human skulls. Is it any wonder that a friendly group of goths would visit a place such as this?

And that dear reader, is the story of The Bone Church.

All photos appear courtesy of Mira Miramariann
and Morten Marius Hansen.

What's Happening to the Goth Scene?

During the last two or three days of July, unsubstantiated rumors began making their way through social media stating that Alt-Fest, a U.K.-based event billed as a new-metal festival, had been cancelled. On August 1, event organizers release an official statement,
which verified the veracity of the rumors. The concept of this event, which had been considered unique by many, had been cancelled.
Had Alt-Fest occurred, it would have been much more than simply a metal event as plans called for four musical stages. The main stage would have featured performances by Marilyn Manson, Fields of the Nephilim and The Cult, to name a few. The other three stages had each been devoted to providing musical performances exclusively in the electronica, metal and goth genres.

In their official statement the event organizers pointed out that cancellation was necessary because they hadn't sold nearly enough tickets to cover band and other expenses. This admission seems to have set off a lively debate on social media as to whether or not Alt-Fest's demise reflects a slow demise of goth culture as a whole. The Vampire Freaks social site released its own Ode to the Organizers,
which concludes by speculating on the possibility that our culture and scene are slowly fading away. Others of course, argue that Alt-Fest was simply a first attempt by its organizers who sadly, were likely inexperienced and found themselves in over their heads. And let's not forget that there are still some highly successful festivals, such as Whitby, which occurs twice a year, and Wave Gotik Treffen. Then again, Prague Gothic Treffen, is set to take place at the end of this month in the Czech Republic. So, the scene is certainly not dead.

Still, Alt-Fest's demise and the ensuing discussions have me thinking about how the scene is faring, not only throughout the United States, but locally and regionally. In my last post, which I entitled The Demise of a Venue,
I mentioned that The Stolen Glass, that very accessible and likely, reasonably priced venue at which we had been holding our Darkness Resurrected Dance Nights, had closed its doors. Further, the Ravenwood Gothic Community had been planning to hold its annual reunion there as well. At the time, I considered the club's closing a bad omen indeed.

At about the same time, I noticed an event promoter in the Tulsa area bemoaning the sometimes low turnout for his events. He moved his affair to Oklahoma City and apparently, enjoyed a successful first night. The question is, will attendance remain high for the next event, and the one after that? Only time will tell.

There's a theory that keeps popping up and it's based upon the belief that musical preferences are slowly driving scene members apart. The argument goes like this: The more traditional folks, who tend to be older, prefer the music that the scene was originally based upon. They want to hear bands like The Cure, The Sisters of Mercy or even newer dark-wave/industrial groups. Younger people, on the other hand, tend to enjoy electronica more. My observation is that at times, various event organizers seem at a loss to bridge this gap. Quite frankly, I think Darkness Resurrected handled things well by playing the more traditional material during the first hour before focusing more on electronic music later on. I'm not sure if that's the answer for everybody, but it might be worth a try.

All things considered, it's hard to tell what might be happening with our sub culture. I know that nothing can remain the same and yet continue being vibrant. Things have to change somewhat; stagnation isn't good; and that most definitely applies to music. Yet, I also realize that things can change to the point that a sub culture is no longer recognizable. In places such as Germany, the United Kingdom and yes, even the Czech Republic, Goth is still doing well. But I am concerned about things here in the States and particularly, here in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

While working on this post I took a break for a minute and jumped over to Facebook, where I found a new post by Darkness Resurrected. Due to the closing of The Stolen Glass and other reasons, Darkness Resurrected Dance Night is being relocated to Little Rock for the next two or three years.While I totally understand the reasons behind the decision and I wish the event organizer every success with his endeavors, I have to admit that I've been overtaken by a cloud of sadness. Little Rock is about 175 miles from where I live and I seriously doubt that I'll be able to make it down there very often, if at all. At the moment, I'm taking solace in the fact that at least the metal scene is thriving up here. Still, metal may be my music of choice and a lot of neat people attend metal events, but it's not the same as going to a goth event.  I'll most definitely miss attending the latter as well as seeing the new friends I'd made.

As for omens, I think really do portend the future sometimes.
 
Photo source: Gothic Pictures Gallery
Artist unknown 
   

The Demise of a Venue

On Friday, May 23 Darkness Resurrected Dance Night celebrated its first anniversary with its first live show featuring Tulsa's Axis and Kansas City's Razorwire Halo. Unfortunately, that event wasn't attended as well as one would hope. More likely than not, this was because that Friday signified the beginning of Memorial Day Weekend, a time when Fayetteville's population is temporarily reduced by close to half, with lots of local folks heading out of town to camp, float the rivers, or whatever.

Little did we know that night that our anniversary celebration would be the last Darkness Resurrected event to take place at The Stolen Glass, a venue which struck me as a perfect fit for Northwest Arkansas' Goth community. On June 30 The Stolen Glass closed its doors forever. No one seems to know why, but such things are not exactly unusual around here; especially, as regards smaller clubs.

Still, this was a venue with a stage large enough to accommodate whatever a promoter wanted to book there, whether a band or deejays with lots of equipment. The Glass had a decent dance floor, a free pool table and sometimes sold test-tube shots for a dollar each.  I'll definitely miss those sweet but potent drinks. I also suspect that booking an event at the venue was a reasonably priced affair, due to its location outside the main entertainment district. I don't know that for sure though.

Now the question is, where do we go from here? I do know that the Ravenwood Gothic Community had been planning to book its annual reunion at The Stolen Glass as well. Now reunion promoters are looking for an alternative venue at which to hold the event. I can think of some possibilities, but wouldn't be surprised if a few of them might be considerably more expensive than we've been used to. Others might be more comparable to what we've been used to.

So, that's where we are this summer. As for me, I'm just hoping that something will eventually work out and that we'll find a new venue. I'd kind of gotten used to attending our Darkness Resurrected Dance Nights every few months or so. And even though I can't say that The Stolen Glass was a regular hangout, it was close to perfect in accommodating our needs. Farewell Stolen Glass. Thanks for the good times. 

Gothic Summer Reading

Yes it's true. Even during the bright sunny days of summer I still enjoy delving into a good, dark novel--and did I ever cross paths with one recently!

It all began back in the end of May when I learned that the local public library had scheduled a book sale for Saturday, June 1. It was just my luck that the sale was planned for the same day that the Confederate Cemetery, one of the two that I take care of, holds its annual vesper services. No, there would be no going to the sale for me; at least, not until the best offerings would likely, already have been purchased. Although I wasn't exactly grieving over my bad luck, I was bothered enough that I spoke to my friend Jeff about it one afternoon.

"Watch," I told him. "I'm probably going to miss out on some good Anne Rice because of this."

As it turned out, he was planning on attending the sale, so I asked him to keep his eyes open for certain  novels written by her.

"If you happen to find Merrick, Blackwood Farm or Blood Canticle, could you pick it up for me?" I asked. "I'll pay you back."

Needless to say, I never made it to the library that day, but the next time I saw him he mentioned looking for the material I'd asked for.

"I didn't see anything by Anne Rice," he told me. "But I did pick up something I thought you might like. It's out in the truck."

So, when he was ready to leave, I followed him to his vehicle where he handed me a book entitled, Lord of the Vampires: The Diaries of the Family Dracul, by Jeannie Kalogridis. I was already intrigued by just looking at the title and the book's cover. Somehow, I just knew it was going to be good. I thanked him and shortly afterward, took my new possession home.

I was still reading a collection of short stories and so, wasn't quite ready to start in on my new acquisition. Still, as I read the cover description of the story upon getting home, my interest only grew deeper, and once I delved into the publication, it didn't disappoint.

Now, I need to point out that this post is not an official book review. As a matter of fact, I'm only about one-third of the way through it. Further, Lord of the Vampires is apparently, the third and final installment in the Diaries of the Family Dracul trilogy. Considering how much I'm enjoying this book, I feel some sense of loss in my not having been aware of this series beforehand. In that case, I'd have started with book one. Still, the story is very much holding its own as a novel in its own right and I have no complaints.

The story, which is told in diary form, opens in the late fifteenth century with the appearance of none other than Vlad the Impaler as he faces military defeat. Determined to attain to a state of immortality, Vlad enters into a grotesque pact with a being called "The Dark Lord." You can probably guess what he becomes after making that deal.

The reader is next moved ahead in time to the late nineteenth century with the written words, first of Abraham Van Helsing and then the vampire Zsuzsanna, who has already gained my sympathies. Vlad now calls himself Dracula and his evil and cruelty seem to have no bounds. Oh yes, he's in his castle in the Carpathians and a good part of the tale is taking place there. Dracula is scheming and has even brought the vampire Elizabeth Bathory into his plans. Will she go along with him?

Between events taking place in the dark castle, a generous helping of romance and eroticism, Van Helsing's tribulations and a plot that complements but does not alter Bram Stoker's original tale, this book has it all. My nighttime reading is transporting me into a wonderland of Gothic imagery and story telling. I can't wait to continue the adventure this evening!

Yes I know. I'm horrible at cropping and the above photo of the book proves it. Still, I'm sure you can get the idea of what the book looks like. I think I'm going to remove the outside cover until I'm through reading it too. It's already getting funky and it's far to attractive to see ruined.