The Bone House - Hallstatt

Making my way to the Bone House.

The sign says: This way! 

The Catholic Church used to frown on cremation, and because of that Hallstatt had to come up with a way to accommodate new graves. There just wasn't enough room. 

I'm just so excited!

Their plan was this: After someone had been interred for ten to fifteen years, their bodies were removed from the grave to make room for a new body.  

I'm loving the lanterns at all of the graves. Isn't this one cute?

Door to Bone house.

All of the large bones would then be cleaned of any remaining flesh, and bleached in the sun until the turned into a nice ivory color. 

 

Then each skull would be painted with flowers, leaves, wreaths, and other decorative things of the kind, as a symbol of affection. (Not unlike placing flowers on a grave.) 

Then their names and D.O.B. and D.O.D. would be painted on as well.

After that they would be placed in the Bone House. 

The Catholic Church has since decided to allow cremation, and now there's no need for the Bone House. As a matter of fact, if you want to be put in the bone house, you have to have been very vocal about it in your life. 

The skull with the gold tooth above is the last person to placed in the Bone House. She expressed a great desire to be put here. She died in 1983, and in 1995 she was removed from her grave, cleaned, bleached, painted, and placed in the bone house. 

Sweet Awesome. That is all.