Ossuary in Hallstatt, Chapel with ossuary in Hallstatt, Austria
The ossuary in Hallstatt is a small chapel-like building housing over 600 painted skulls neatly arranged in rows. The remains come from residents whose graves were emptied after about ten to twenty years to make space in the mountain-bound cemetery.
The building dates to the 12th century and became part of St. Michael's Chapel, as the tight settlement between lake and mountain left little burial space. Beginning in the early 1700s, skulls were painted and marked with death dates, a practice that continues to this day.
The painted skulls carry hand-lettered names and dates, among them Wolfgang Pilz 1855, Magtalena Pilz 1881, Kath. Fischer geboren 1857 and Elisabeth Kogler 1882. Motifs in green, black, red and gold — leafy vines, crosses and floral clusters — frame each name. The skulls rest on plain wooden planks against a rough pale wall, and families still request this form of burial.
The ossuary is a small vaulted room inside St. Michael's Chapel, up the slope from the Catholic parish church; the climb from the lakeside village is on foot, with stepped lanes and cobbled paths. The room is cramped, so a few visitors at a time move along the shelves. Keep voices low and hands off the bones and the carved slab dated 1825.
The most recent skull was added in 1983 from a woman who specifically requested to be placed here, and this tradition still allows living Hallstatt residents to ask in their wills for admission. After ten years in the ossuary, each skull is cleaned and repainted to refresh its appearance.
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