From the outside of the Skull Chapel, or Kaplica Czaszek, in the Polish village of Czerma, you would just think it to be a run of the mill place of worship for the townspeople. But then you enter and see the skulls of 3,000 people on the walls of the small church. Then you’d go into the basement and find another 21,000 skeletons.
The remains are those of people who died in the Thirty Years’ War, three Silesian Wars, and from various cholera epidemics in the 18th century. It is the only monument of its kind in Poland and one of only three in all of Europe.
History
The chapel was built in 1776 by the local parish priest Wacław Tomaszek. It is the mass grave of people who died during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), threeSilesian Wars (1740–1763), as well as of people who died because of cholera epidemics and hunger.
Together with J. Schmidt and J. Langer, Tomaszek collected the casualties’ bones and put them in the chapel. Walls of this small, baroque church are filled with three thousand skulls, and there are also bones of another 21 thousand people interred in the basement. The skulls of people who built the chapel are placed in the centre of the building and on the altar.
It is the only such monument in Poland, and one of three in Europe. It is situated in one of the oldest villages in Kłodzko County, near Kudowa Zdrój, in the Lower Silesia, Poland.
The remains are those of people who died in the Thirty Years’ War, three Silesian Wars, and from various cholera epidemics in the 18th century. It is the only monument of its kind in Poland and one of only three in all of Europe.
History
The chapel was built in 1776 by the local parish priest Wacław Tomaszek. It is the mass grave of people who died during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), threeSilesian Wars (1740–1763), as well as of people who died because of cholera epidemics and hunger.
Together with J. Schmidt and J. Langer, Tomaszek collected the casualties’ bones and put them in the chapel. Walls of this small, baroque church are filled with three thousand skulls, and there are also bones of another 21 thousand people interred in the basement. The skulls of people who built the chapel are placed in the centre of the building and on the altar.
It is the only such monument in Poland, and one of three in Europe. It is situated in one of the oldest villages in Kłodzko County, near Kudowa Zdrój, in the Lower Silesia, Poland.
