(somber music) (bird caws) (somber music) - When I think about what I
want done with my own dead body, cemeteries like this make
things a little complicated. On the one hand, I still want
to go directly into the earth or to be eaten by animals, to treat myself as organic
material and to rot. But on the other hand,
wouldn't it be lovely to be put into one of these
19th-century mausoleums? It's the only way I'll ever own property. (melodious music) Cemeteries are the place we come to face and interact with our own mortality. But have you ever thought,
"What's the next level? What if they just showed me all the bones? Maybe just a wall of bones?" (eerie music) Lucky for you, my friend, we're about to go on a little
field trip. (claps hands) Transition. (upbeat music) I'm taking the train to Southern Portugal, hopefully to visit four charnel houses in Evora, Campo Maior,
Alcantarilha, and Faro. I say hopefully, because
the charnel in Campo Maior is closed for renovations. We've been trying to bribe the priest to let us in for two weeks now. Not my proudest moment. - [Cameraman] What is a charnel house? - What is a charnel house? - [Narrator] What is a charnel house? - What is a charnel house? In Europe in the Middle Ages, it was quite the fashion to be
buried at your local church. Perhaps under the floorboards, in the walls, in the churchyard outside. Of course, that meant
you had a lot of bodies at your church. - [Narrator] The Middle Ages were magic. - During times of plague or disasters, you might need to bury
hundreds of new bodies at once. But, where were all the
old burials supposed to go? Enter the bone house, the carnarium. This word became charnel in English, or ossuary, from the Latin os or bone. A blessed house, a small
chapel, for a whole lotta bones. Yes, it was a storeroom, but it was still close to the holy place, and the monks might even go there to meditate on the
impermanence of human life. But the charnel houses
we're going to visit aren't stacks of bones at
the back of a churchyard. In the 17th and 18th century, you started to see those rooms of bones become decorated rooms of bones. At first, decorated meant, "Let's add some art to this
existing room of bones," and then it became, "Let's decorate with
the bones themselves." (dramatic music) (bell tolls) This video is brought to
you by, not sponsored, but brought to you by
Dr. Paul Koudounaris. It is so hard to find information on the Portuguese charnels,
especially in English, and he pretty much wrote the book on it, and he's always so generous
with his information, and just a real winner of a person. So, thank you, Dr. Paul. (bell tolls) (eerie music) We're about to head inside
the Chapel of Bones, the Capela dos Ossos, which is housed in a former
Franciscan dormitory. Now, I know what you're thinking. Caitlin, weren't the masters of bone work of that period Capuchin? (chuckles) Yeah, normally they were, but here in Portugal, they
were mostly Franciscan. The message over the
chapel door translates to, "We bones are here waiting for yours." Inside the Bone Chapel of Evora, there are over 5,000 sets of human remains pulled out of local cemeteries. This charnel has been here since the 1650s and used to be called
House of Disillusion. The whole setup here is meant
to inspire you to repent. (bell tolls) So, are you saying that in
the 17th and 18th centuries, groups of monks all over Europe got into this really macabre frame of mind and were like, "Everyone
around us is vain, and money-obsessed, and corrupt, and we're gonna need to remind them that they're going to die, so they'll reflect and repent, and live a more upstanding life? And we're going to accomplish this through elaborate bone decoration using the remains of thousands of people." Yes. Here in Evora, a plaque reads, "Where are you going in
such a hurry, traveler? Stop. Do not proceed any further. You have no greater concern than this one. Recall how many have
passed from this world, reflect on your similar end. If by chance you glance
at this place, stop. For the sake of your journey,
the more that you pause, the more you will progress." Essentially, the more that you pause and take the time to
think about your death, the more you'll progress in your journey to understand mortality, grasp how short life is, and how you need to be
living a better one. Earlier this year, there
was a viral post in Urdu, copied from one written several
years ago in Indonesian, claiming this charnel in Evora is a Portuguese tourist attraction built using the bodies of 5,000 Muslims killed for not converting to Christianity. To clear up that conspiracy, it's just some death-obsessed
17th-century monks locally sourcing their skulls. (bell tolls) And because you're wondering, let's talk about these mummies. What are they doing here? Until recently, they were
hanging from the ceiling. Hanging mummies are actually quite normal in these types of charnels. There have long been
rumors about these mummies. In one popular story,
they were a father and son who treated their wife
and mother very badly, so she put a curse on them, that they could never
be successfully buried. They have to be forever out in the open, displayed here as a moralizing lesson about being a bad husband and son. But when they tested the bodies, they discovered they're ladies. Lady mummies. - [Narrator] Lady mummy. - So the mummies' initial purpose, the educational or
repenting tool they were, has been lost to time. The bone chapel here at
Evora is extremely popular. It's one of the most popular
charnel houses in Europe. And Evora's a big tourist
town in and of itself, and it's number one on their Tripadvisor. And having that sheer
number of people here, it can cause problems. There was a fungus growing on the skulls, there were missing teeth and graffiti, and the mummies were damaged. But also, existentially,
it's kind of concerning that people aren't
getting the full context of what's going on here. I'll never forget going to
my first charnel in Czechia, and walking in and there's
two American dudes, and they look up at this cherub
on the wall and one goes, "Dude, what's the deal
with that fat baby?" Context is so important, and I know that I live in this
death-positive fever dream, but maybe the right idea is that it's still five euros
for people from Portugal, but for tourists who would otherwise just check this off their list and get their selfie, you have to come for an
hour and pay 25 euro, and the first half an hour is a lecture, and the context and the
history of why this was made, and the second half an hour is quiet contemplation
of your own mortality. (bell tolls) Disagree with me if you
will, I can take it, but, just a thought. (bell tolls) Next stop, not Campo Maior. (buzzer rings) 'Cause it turns out the
priest could not be bought. Which, I guess, is good news. (bell tolls) (bright music) I've read a lot of reviews and travel blogs of
this particular chapel. And most of them say something like- - If you're in the area
to get a cup of coffee or lunch across the street, then stop by. But, otherwise, it's not really worth it. It's just one room of bones. - How many rooms of bones
are required to impress you? Literally the reviews are like- - Don't worry, you can get
sardines across the street. - It's Portugal. You can get sardines everywhere. The decorative scheme in here is Golgotha, the place Jesus was crucified. You can see the skulls form three tiers. And at the top was the figure
of Jesus being crucified, except Jesus is missing. He's supposed to be
here, he used to be here, being crucified on this pile of bones, but he's gone missing. The connection here is, historically, Golgotha
is known as a skull hill. And there's lots of debates on this, whether it's the shape of a skull, or that it was a place
of execution or burial. But here in this chapel,
they make it very literal. Jesus is literally on a pile of skulls. There are a little over
1,000 sets of bones inside the chapel, and there's one particular story
about where they came from, which is that, years ago, there was a secret gathering of people who had
converted to Protestantism, and they were struck down
by a sudden earthquake that buried them in the
rubble, killing them all. And when they dug them out
of the muck and rubble, they were like, "Oh my gosh, these people were doing
secret Protestant things. We need to take their bones and turn them into a Catholic display, as an example against people
who would try to do this." You will not be surprised to
learn that much like Evora, the bones here actually
came from cemeteries and churchyards around this location. Not sinful, secret Protestants. (pan sizzles) After all that guff that I
was giving to the reviewers and travel bloggers, here I am eating across
the street from the chapel. But, listen, I'm eating here as a byproduct of going
to visit the bone chapel. I'm not visiting the bone chapel as a byproduct of eating
at this restaurant. (bell tolls) (men chant) If during this next section, you can hear children
shrieking in the background, it's because right out this window, there is either a daycare
or an elementary school. Imagine going to elementary
school next to this. (bell tolls) It's not surprising that we would end our
journey here in Faro, in Southern Portugal,
at the Igreja do Carmo. This chapel was built in
the early 19th century, which makes it one of the
latest bone chapels, period. You can really see how
the design has evolved. This chapel is extremely
neat, clean, and neoclassical. I wanted to throw in what Paul
Koudounaris wrote about it because I tend to agree. Quote, "This charnel
is among the strangest of all bone chapels. Since the classicizing
impulse is so strong here, that the structure seems
to lose expressive effect. Rigorous order seems as
much a theme as mortality and death winds up feeling
somehow less oppressive than it normally does." The bones here are from a
cemetery here on the grounds and it was built by Carmelite laymen. So we got your Franciscans,
we got your Carmelites. We got 'em all, all the monks. I am all for people being
able to come in here and not have it be blocked off or behind a rope or something, but you can tell all the skulls
above this level are intact, and this level, where tourists can bang into
them with their backpacks, they're all broken. This is where things get very
numerology, very Nostradamus. Everything is in the ratio of three, a number important in the Bible, and possibly connected
to the Carmelite crest with it's three stars. The chapel was constructed
with 1,245 skulls. I know what you're thinking,
"That's not three!" One plus two, three. Two plus four, six. Four plus five, nine. Think about it, people. (bell tolls) The question remains to be discussed. Are these charnels disrespectful? Desecration of the dead? Is it wrong that they
were ever made at all? These mad fantasies of monks with too much time on their hands? I don't believe they are disrespectful, and here's why. You know we stand for postmortem consent. And, yes, there is an argument to be made that the people in this charnel didn't know their bones
would end up quite this way. But the conspiracy theories we discussed of Catholics stealing Muslim bones or Protestant bones to make their chapels, never really happened. There's not that kind
of postmortem violence or punishment happening. The Catholic bones in the
walls of these chapels wanted to be buried near the church. And they knew that after
a certain period of time, they'd likely end up charneled, all their bones in one place. They wanted to be prayed for, they wanted to be close
to priests and monks, they wanted that connection to God. And that's, essentially,
exactly what they got. Their bones were visited,
meditated on, prayed for. That kind of attention for your soul, and make no mistake, body and soul are very
connected in Catholicism. I can't help but think that
many would be pretty content with that situation. Maybe not the
tourists-stealing-their-teeth situation. But that's a more modern-day issue. Maybe you wouldn't want
your bones used this way, but it's never right to assume thoughts, and feelings, and desires
from 400 years ago are identical to ours. Now, would I ever be charneled? After this trip, I have
to say I'm all for it. Let the animals eat me, and then if you wish, if it's helpful, use the bones for a decorative charnel. Come on by, meditate on my skull. (bell tolls) (bright music) Thank you to our patrons whose trust and generosity
allows us to do this work. - Work? You mean touring crypts
on your summer vacation? - You think these charnels research and film themselves, Rolf? Go eat some sardines. (bell tolls) We also have some new merch
in the Patreon Secret Shoppe, which, as always, is ethically made, supports independent artists, and supports this channel. (bright music) (somber music) ♪ I hear you got a lotta
bone houses in Europe ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ I'm ready for it ♪ ♪ Going to the bone house ♪ ♪ Bone house, bone house ♪ ♪ Going to the bone house ♪ ♪ Bone house, bone house ♪ ♪ Going to the bone house ♪ ♪ Gonna see the bones ♪ ♪ Gonna see 1,000 bones ♪ ♪ Or maybe monks ♪ ♪ I put that on Tripadvisor ♪ ♪ You should skip some ♪ ♪ And each day eat a sardine ♪ ♪ But I'd rather count
your grateful value ♪ ♪ Going to the bone house ♪ ♪ Bone house, bone house ♪ ♪ Going to the bone house ♪ ♪ Bone house, bone house ♪ ♪ Number one on Tripadvisor ♪ ♪ Gonna see the bone house ♪ ♪ Or maybe eat a wet sardines ♪ ♪ In Portugal Bone House ♪ ♪ There's a lot of bones in there ♪ ♪ Something so small ♪ ♪ I know that I've gotta catch them all ♪ ♪ There's children playing
outside the bone house ♪ ♪ Baby, gonna contemplate mortality ♪ ♪ Then you eat a wet
sardine at the bone house ♪ ♪ Bone house, bone house, bone house ♪ ♪ At the bone house, baby ♪ ♪ Bone house, baby ♪ ♪ Bone house, baby ♪ ♪ Bone house, bone house ♪ ♪ Bone house, bone house ♪ ♪ Wet sardines, mortality ♪ ♪ Gonna go to the bone house ♪ ♪ Oh, yes ♪
Umm yes please. Let's put this pretty head of mine on display instead of burying it. 💀
Something like that is in Czech Republic:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary
Yeah, let's.