Amazing

Skull Chapel

The Skull Chapel in Kudowa Zdrój – Lower Silesian province in the south of Poland – is the only one in Poland and one of three such places in Europe.

Built in the years 1776-1784, it is an amazing tomb of the victims of wars lasting many years and infectious diseases from the 17th and 18th centuries. The walls and ceiling of the Chapel were lined with three thousand human skulls and tibial bones. There are also over 20,000 skulls and bones under the floor that fill the basement to a height of 2 meters. Some skulls and bones show signs of mutilations and diseases that these people died from: mainly bullet marks, cuts and changes caused by diseases and the cholera epidemic that hit these areas in the 17th century.

All these bones were found shallow underground by the then parish priest in the area of ​​Kudowa, Duszniki and Polanica Zdrój. It was he who decided to collect and clean them, and consequently build this terrifying Chapel.

photos by: mgr Alina Jabłońska Domurat & Adobe Stock