Over the last two decades, we may have visited more Italian churches than many of the most devout churchgoers. We go there not to worship, but rather to admire the medieval and renaissance artwork, to gawk at the massive and ornate architecture, and to revel in the cool peacefulness that these centuries-old structures offer travelers. We always make sure to visit when it’s appropriate – during open hours, when religious services are not taking place.
It’s commonplace in many of these to find the remains of the saint to whom the church is dedicated – and in some cases their entire mummified bodies – on display at the altar or a side chapel. But a few sites, scattered across the country, take this idea to an extreme degree: entire churches – or ossuaries – dedicated to housing thousands of bones and intact skeletons, to honor in death the devotions and sacrifices that the former owners of these skeletons made in life. Disclaimer: these sites are not for the faint of heart!
