Maria Waitschach, Parish church and ossuary in Guttaring, Austria
Maria Waitschach is a parish church with an attached ossuary perched on a hilltop overlooking the Carinthian landscape. The complex includes the church building, the bone house for storing human remains, and a cemetery that together form a protected historical site.
The church was established centuries ago as a spiritual center for the parish community and continues in this role today. The ossuary developed from a regional practice of storing bones from deceased members to preserve cemetery space.
The church serves as the religious center of Guttaring where locals gather for services and community events. The adjoining ossuary holds the bones of previous generations according to a regional practice of bone storage.
The site is accessible via hiking trails from Guttaring, though routes involve steep climbs and descents along the way. Wear sturdy footwear and check weather conditions beforehand, as the hilltop location is exposed to changing weather patterns.
The ossuary is a regional rarity that reveals how earlier communities managed limited cemetery space through bone storage. Such bone collections are uncommon today and offer insight into historical burial customs that were once widespread in Alpine areas.
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