Skull Chapel, Kudowa-Zdrój

From the outside it is a small Baroque chapel between a church and a bell tower in Czermna. Inside, the walls and vault are covered with about 3,000 closely packed skulls and bones. In total, the Skull Chapel and the crypt beneath its floor hold the remains of about 30,000 people – victims of the wars and epidemics that swept through the Kłodzko region over two centuries. It is regarded as the only ossuary of its kind in Poland.

History: a priest, a gravedigger and a sexton

In 1776 the Czech parish priest of Czermna, Father Václav Tomášek (Wacław Tomaszek), noticed human skulls and bones in a bank near the bell tower. Together with the gravedigger J. Langer and the sexton J. Schmidt he began to dig them out. It soon turned out that the remains of thousands of people lay just below the surface. They had died in the Thirty Years' War, the Silesian Wars and the Seven Years' War, or in epidemics including cholera.

A year earlier, in 1775, Tomášek had visited the catacombs in Rome, and the experience gave him the idea of an ossuary. The chapel was built in 1776–1784 with the support of Leopold von Leslie. For nearly 20 years the priest and the gravedigger collected remains around Kudowa, Duszniki and Polanica, and the decoration was finished in 1804. Both men decided that after their deaths their own skulls would join the others in the chapel.

What to see

• The walls and vault, lined with layers of skulls and thigh bones arranged in patterns.
• The altar with a Baroque crucifix, displaying selected skulls – including those of the gravedigger Langer and Father Tomášek.
• Two wooden angels – one with a trumpet and the Latin words "Arise from the dead", the other with scales and "Come to judgement".
• Skulls with a story: one of a Tatar, one showing signs of disease, and the thigh bone of a man about 2 metres tall, possibly a Swede.
• A memorial at the entrance from 1914, inscribed in German, Czech and Polish: "In memory of the victims of war, and as a warning to the living".

Interesting facts

On the altar lies the skull of Martinec, the village head of Czermna, with clear bullet holes. During the Seven Years' War the Prussians shot him for guiding Austrian troops through the Błędne Skały rock labyrinth. Next to it is the skull of his wife, with the mark of a blow from a sharp blade. According to tradition, she tried to shield her husband with her own body. The chapel is often compared with the ossuary at Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic.

Tripto tip

The chapel is at ul. Stanisława Moniuszki 8a in the Czermna district, about 1 km from the centre of Kudowa-Zdrój, in the valley of the Czermnica stream. According to the official website it is open daily from 9:30 to 17:00, and visits are guided only. Tickets cost PLN 20 (standard), PLN 15 (seniors 65+) and PLN 12 (children and young people aged 6–18). Children under 6 enter free. Prices and rules may change, so check the chapel's website before you go. Photography is not allowed inside, and the guided visit itself is short. If you are visiting with children, talk to them first about what they will see. Afterwards, walk around St Bartholomew's Church and plan the rest of the day at Błędne Skały, the rocks linked to Martinec's story.