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Show al H i red i cr O Sedlac, a sleepy little town at cbout 60 miles from Prague, Tu! Czechoslovakia, holds one of the tiel , . i- , I strangest, and eeriest relics in the , Lai world a church whose interior is -y decorated with the bones of 10,- i j' pai 0C0 people. The church (right) is '? i visited by tourists from all over 1 he1 A- Tud the world, but one visit usually M suffices for a lifetime. Even the i J villagers who have lived with it f most of their lives use it but once 2 a year during the Easter season J as a grim reminder that life is transient and death is certain. The rest of the time it is shown to visitors as a curiosity of the district by an old caretaker who i' carefully dusts the skulls every two months. I . O Pan American hostess Marcel-la Marcel-la Vocelova (left) looks at this intricate in-tricate shield belonging to t h e house of Count Schwarzenberg whose family has taken care of the church for generations. How and why the bones were put into the church varies with the storyteller. story-teller. Built in 1280 when a traveler travel-er brought earth from Jerusalem for its altar, the church and its yard became a very popular cemetery. ceme-tery. Everyone wanted to be buried bur-ied in its hallowed ground. The 10,000 bones came from the bodies in the cemetery. This eerie scene (right) startles and stops the tourist in his track. On entering the church he sees fj first a row of gleaming human skulls lining the top of the altar beneath the figure of Christ. i5 ; Skulls stare from the niches. on the sides where they have been A fitted into lamps. Church instru- gA ments include a chalice made of j bones. n t lUiS 4jj1. I'll' ' 1" 1 ' '.' M I ' ! sru i - nrf x 4 dei ; f Vi-yAvy , , Other skulls that are fashioned into candle holders and monstrance bear sword marks, and some still con-. con-. tain bits of teeth. Miss Vocelova (left) inspects some of the altar instruments. The caretaker shows the visitor visi-tor this display with a noticeable lack of enthusiasm. " - - An ; frtcain fe The chandelier (right) is an j inspiration of horror and causes more visitors to retreat than anything any-thing else. Strings of skulls form shadows on the ceiling. And when ? the candles in this grotesque chandelier are lit, the skulls give ' an uncanny impression that they i are participating in the ceremony. One account reports this display , wgs conceived and arranged by a I blind monk. ! i . |