As the story goes, three tireless Franciscan monks ransacked various local cemeteries for the bones of 5000 people to construct it with. Enormous femurs and baby tibias nest upon every inch of the walls, while rows of skulls line the capitals and ceiling vaults. It's interesting to think that a mere 500 years ago, that was an acceptable thing for a church to do, regardless of whatever wishes the deceased may have had.

This church takes a different approach to displaying the deceased. Rather than an artistic minimalistic approach, there is more of an architectural approach, where as you move through the church, the remains have sort of crept into the design until they essentially overpower it.

As you first walk in the chapel section, perhaps nothing seems out of the ordinary: A traditional vaulted ceiling, rough hewn stone walls with sweeping arc patterns across it. Then you might spot that some of the trim on the arches of the vaulted ceiling are actually skulls (laid out similar to the skull streamers in my first "bone chapel", but nestled within the architecture, rather than hanging). That, in and of itself isn't TOO bad, though it's interesting to see that the paintings on the ceilings also incorporate paintings of skulls within them.

Then as you move further into the church, the array of corpses become more noticeable, as some of the pillars supporting the roof, are encased in squared stacks of skulls and bones, where everything is set up in an orderly fashion. It's almost like something that H.R. Giger (the artist that created the "look" and feel of the "Aliens" movies) would design. Though with pure bone, rather than all the piping and suchlike that Giger is known for.

Then as you move further into this area, you'll notice that the sweeping patterns you subconsciously noted on the rear wall actually consists of rows of bones arranged within a solid wall of MORE bone that reaches into the darkness of the vaulted ceiling. The walls, in this section of the chapel are completely covered in organized patterns of bones. Howver, rather than doing it the easy way, and using patterns to spread the bone material around, covering more surface area (like the Cappuchin monks did in my previous article), these are solid stacks, and the small "nubs" visible in the wall are the ends of bone that has been stacked like kindling, from floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall.

What might, at a glance, appear to be small chandeliers, are actually two naked corpses suspended from the wall near the ceiling, with only rotten skin holding them together. One hangs from the wall, high in the air, and the other hangs from a rod that goes into the wall. There's a rumor about the two corpses, but personally, I don't buy into it. The corpses are supposedly a man and a child (toddler / infant), and the rumor is that the man is the boy's father, and his wife was dying on her sickbed and for some reason (take your pick: adultery, abuse, whatever) she decided to curse the two males by saying that their skin will never wither. Seems to me that I've suffered worse curses before, so I'm wondering if the true translation is supposed to be a blessing, rather than curse. Unless of course it included the fact that they'd be hung on display in a church, naked and rotting, until they were dust. I'm thinking THAT's a much better curse, at least for self-conscious folks. Also, that child seems kinda' small to get cursed like that.

If the rumor were true, you'd be taking a fairly big risk if you decided that this lady's curse was gonna' work for a few hundred years, or so. THEN, once they die, you hang them in a difficult-to-access location, and hope that the curse holds, so that they aren't falling apart onto the church patrons that wander beneath the grisly display. They actually ARE falling apart though, and the adult has apparently lost its arms from the elbows down. I can only imagine what it would be like to wander past and have a rotten forearm fall on you.

I discount the rumor simply because it makes more sense to suggest that the bodies were the first ones to be hung in the church, and their skin stayed more intact than anyone anticipated. Comparitively, they are in decent, but average shape, considering the likely preparation they received. I say "first" to be hung there, because the pole that the adult hangs near seems designed to act as a macabre closet rod. Where most folks would hang their clothes, it looks like these clothes hung their folks. It seems apparent to me that it was intended to be loaded full of similar corpses, but perhaps the idea was discarded as the first corpses seem as though they must not only stunk to high heaven, but as noted, the arms of the adult fell off, which can turn a simple janitorial job into a fairly gruesome task. I assume that they were also surprised when the decay absolutely ravaged the body of the child, appearing to start at it's navel, and spreading outwards, despite the processes they would have used to "arrest" the rot prior to hanging them up in there.

This leads me to believe it was an infant hanging up there, not only because of its size, but since most decay begins wherever there's an opening in the skin, such as where the umbilical cord would have been, or eyes, mouth, etc. Additional care is given to the subject's face, because of the amount of openings thru the skin located there, but other areas tend to be given only casual treatment. In most cases where a body is to be on display, clothing is worn by the subject, but for some reason, not here. I won't give reasons for the rot acceleration at orifices beyond saying that our skin is designed to be weatherproof, the rest us our bodies aren't. Judging by the rot patterns, apparently, the umbilical opening was not fully closed on this infant, suggesting it may have been stillborn, or at least born within days of its death.

I would even go so far as to suggest that the corpses are actually that of a woman and her child that died during childbirth. The positions of the upper arms of the adult definitely seem to indicate that the corpse was holding something before the arms fell off. The child is attached near a window, in a different fashion entirely. Perhaps the rotten infant fell from the arms of her dead mother, and was rehung in a different position. That's an unfortunate set of circumstances, if true, but I suppose that would certainly have "closed the door" on adding any more hanging corpses. Or perhaps the mother and child, were intended to signify something specific, like the Immaculate Conception, or love eternal, or something along those lines. Whatever it was, it seems to me as though it failed its purpose, and rather than become an embarrassment, its purpose has been hidden away, perhaps even entirely forgotten. I could find no information on it, beyond the rumor I previously mentioned.

However, I should note that there is a small statue of Mary, mother of Jesus, next to the sacristy. One arm has been broken off, in a similar fashion to the adult corpse.

I suspect that the gender of the adult corpse was hidden due to the fact that it was not considered "seemly" for a woman to be naked in public, even upon her death. Which, by the way, is why in old days of public execution, women were traditionally tied to a stake and burned, despite the fact that their male counterparts were typically hung, sometimes on the same day. It was considered unseemly in those days for a woman to dangle, kicking and twitching, from a rope.

Hanging a female corpse and her stillborn infant might have been considered a good idea at first, but then as time wore on, and differences became obscured, they may have simply decided to pretend it was a male up there, considering it was now considered distasteful, regardless of it's historical and religeous significance. You can paint dead naked chicks, but don't expect to actually hang 'em in your church without SOMEONE raising an eyebrow. Of course, if it was a male up there, it's fine. Of course that was well before woman's liberation determined that you can't go around being respectful to women any more... go figure.

I wonder if there isn't a hidden reason for the church's layout. It's almost as if you stand there debating whether it's a church being "replaced' by death as time goes on? Or if the life of the church is gradually pushing away the moribidity that has encroached upon it. Either way, the transition between church, chapel, and grave is very odd, and the nature of the bones seem overwhelmingly organized, as though the impression was to have a church that was being rebuilt by bone. Perhaps it was to signify the inevitable death that all life must enter into, or the encroachment of death upon the living.

Perhaps I'm just reading too much into it, but it seems like a LOT of work to indicate SOMETHING other than, "Look, stop burying all those bones, we can stick 'em to the walls instead!", or maybe "You bastards are SOOO stingy with the collection plate that we had to get folks out of graveyards to replace the missing rear wall."

Of course, the real message here is saying: "You're going to die, is your immortal soul good enough for heaven yet? Or should you say a few more 'Hail Marys' or let the priest molest your kid, or whatever it is they're preaching these days."

Ahh.. OK, that was uncalled for, I really DO have respect for churches, and in the belief of God. A few bad apples don't spoil the Eden, or whatever the saying is. Anyways, there are valuable things which can be learned from the Bible with regards to how to act towards others and suchlike, I can certainly appreciate that, and highly recommend the book. Churches? well.. I feel there's simply too many variations on the general theme with each claiming: "do it our way, or go to hell". My advice? Make your own peace with God if you feel like you should. If you don't, then don't, going to church simply won't change any of that. You either repent and mean it, or it's useless anyhow.

By the way, my views don't reflect the views of Nolan, or the NPCR, or the other NPCR authors, or most churches, or most pagans, satanists, or atheists, I guess. Hell, they probably don't even reflect my own beliefs.

That's all the bones are for... to make you think, and perhaps determine how you really feel about the whole concept of death and salvation. How YOU feel, not me, or the next guy.

Next up: The "Cemetery of the Innocents", or lack thereof, otherwise known as the "Empire of the Dead": the French Catacombs. An estimated 6 million corpses stacked inside of 28 square miles of underground labrynth. Yes, 6 million... don't miss it!