Portugal Guide: Chapel of Bones

Evora Bone Chapel, Portugal

A popular 17th century room makeover using the bones of 5,000 people; Capela dos Ossos, or Chapel of Bones.

Evora has no shortage of things to do but high on most tourist's list is a visit to this fairly gruesome room, Capela dos Ossos, in the Manueline-Gothic Igreja [church] de Sao Francisco where skeletons do no belong in the closet.

Charmingly, as you enter, you can't help but notice an inscription over the door: [Roughly translated as..] 'We bones await yours.'
Clearly bored out of their skulls, 17th century monks collected bones from overflowing local graveyards and spent many happy hours constructing this uplifting room. They were doubtless bone-tired afterwards.
Portugal has other bony chapels including a popular one in Faro's Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Carmo, though that one is from the 19th century and exclusively made from monk's bones.

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