This entry is brought to you by the word CREEPY!
And I thought the bone church was creepy!?!
Not by a long shot!
I think we’re all familiar with what bones look like…we’ve seen the skeleton hanging in the corner of high school science class…but I was seriously unprepared for the Capuchin crypt of Brno!
Just so you can’t miss it…Gonna take you to Creepy Town
It seems some years ago, in 1700’s actually, it seems a group of Capuchin monks realized that their crypt was dry enough to naturally mumify bodies. (I have to wonder if they just left one poor sod sitting there too long…?) What became of this was the natural mumification of a rang of monks from the early 1700’s-1800’s.
It’s the first sight mentioned in my guidebook, and only 20k (less then a US dollar) so I figure, ‘Why not?’
I’ll tell you why not!!! NIGHTMARE INDUCING CREEPINESS!
Near the entrance the crypt is lined with glass coffins. Inside are the dried out mummies of some monks…in a range of states of decay. Some have perfectly preserved, though icky brown, skin…some have had their feet crumble in bone fragments and skin dust. Ick!
Two, of the better off looking fellows
But I continue on…edging closer to the family in front of me because I’m seriously getting the heebie-jeebies.
What awaits me in the final chamber…well…I’m pretty sure the image will cling to the recesses of my brain for the rest of my life. There’s a room with about 20 bodies, arms crossed, laying directly on the dirt floor. Here’s where the different sucsess rates of this type of mumification become really apparent. There were horrific corpses who’s mouth had fallen open, teeth eventually falling out…open mouth mummy screams…I could almost hear them.
Poor saps…not even a coffin to their names, or with it for that matter.
If I ever thought I might see a ghost it was here…who wants their ugly, mummified corpse being started at by thousands…some throwing coins and actually breaking the decrepid bodies further! Ugh! and Ack! and Get me outta here!
I’d seen enough and virtually ran for the door, with a weird tingle going up and down my spine. I threw open the squeky door and got my butt outta there…then went back and closed it gently behind me as a nearby sign asked me to do.
I’ve got pictures but I’m undecided on posting them…they’re just a bit much and I’m not sure everyone will really be excited to see this stuff. (Well, too late…I decided to share the ickiness with all of you!)
This has to be the strangest ‘tourist attraction’ I’ve ever visited! …But I got another, less potent, dose of creepy later in the day.
I hiked up the hill overlooking Brno to check out Spilberk Castle.
The entrance to the Castle
I decided to see the prison museum housed in the rampart walls. A rather lovely girl gave me a map, and before explaining the finer points of what I was about to see asked me if I was a native english speaker and could I help her with a few phrases. She listed things from songs and I did my best to explain…and then she went over the map, happy as a lark.
It seems I’d be in the tunnels of the prison that was originally built into the castle walls, seeing cells, guard chambers and instruments of torture…goody!
I set off…
You walk down a flight of stairs and are instantly enveloped in darkness…you sense the towering, arched brick walls looming around you, but there is very little light, and you have to wait for your eyes to adjust or risk falling over the uneven cobblestone floors.
There’s really not much to the museum…they point out different types of cells and architectural info and you stumble along…and then you turn a corner and there’s a face looking at you!
Some of the cells are “decorated” with life-size, but not quite life-like, manequins with derranged looks on their faces, being subjected to torture by equally creepy guard manequins. Here’s a prisoner on the rack…here’s one being burned with hot pokers…here’s one with a giant bolder strapped to his feet, arms tied behind his back, being hoisted into the air from somewhere around his waist.
Now this didn’t compare to the crpyt in pure creepiness, but I’d had enough of anything of the sort for the day and walked rather quickly back to daylight.
Afterwards I bought some picnic provisions and camped out on a bench in the park reading a book and banishing icky, creepy images from the forefront of my brain.
It didn’t exactly work…I they snuck into my dreams! I tossed and turned through the night, though I wouldn’t call them nightmares.
This morning, I was more then ready to leave Brno!
On the train…and outta Creepy Capital Czech Republic…
Tags: Czech Rep.
LizG
scary stuff eh?
Just like the Anchor on a Friday night?
One of the things I realised over this weekend is that not travelling, and not seeing these kinda things is something that I could never live with…
Although these images might haunt you for years to come they will also make you a more interesting and rewarding person…
Its also nice, for someone like me , to sit on my sofa and enjoy your travels
PB
p.s squeak….
p.p.s hahahah…
Cool! I think I would totally dig the crypt (I KNOW Suke would, the freak!). But I’m sure I would have nightmares too. I get nightmares if I go to bed with a tummy ache for chrissakes!