Many cities around the world, especially in Europe, have historically taken a slightly different approach, routinely removing bones from the ground or vaults and transferring them to vast underground catacombs or ossuaries, where the artistic skills of the custodian were given free rein. The largest of these is under the streets of Paris, where nearly 6 million skeletons lie, and perhaps one of the most ornate is the Sedlec ossuary in the Czech Republic, built in 1400 to house the skeletons removed from the church’s overcrowded cemetery.
