7 Sep 2011 Cellar full of skulls and bones

A shocking sight came to the attention of workers who ten years ago carried out renovations on the church in Genoa. They came across a room full of human bones and skulls. The ossuary was located behind the former morgue.

During the work, the workers came across a depression in the floor. It subsequently collapsed, revealing a largely buried hole about a metre by a metre. It led to a cellar of which the workers had no idea. When they looked inside, it was clear to them that it was a large vault. It was two-thirds filled with bones and skulls.

Archaeologists and police arrived on the scene. They immediately documented the area. It turned out to be the remains of people from the 19th and 20th centuries. They were stored in a double-cross vaulted dungeon measuring about 4.30 by 8.60 metres and about 2.20 metres high.

"The plan of the ossuary roughly coincides with that of the building above it. One of the vertical walls towards the church is partially collapsed and shows signs of formerlocal chronicler Klaus Müller revealed at the time.

The bones were not sorted in any way, they were simply lying in a heap. They did not form a coherent skeleton. In addition to human remains, there were also remnants of decayed wood in the ossuary. These were probably the remains of coffins, and also fragments of a cast cross. Archaeologist Milan Kuchařík dated the cellar to the Baroque period.

In the cellar there were probably bones dug up from the old German cemetery, which were placed in a place of remembrance under the mortuary. Similarly, the remains were deposited in other churches.

Among the bones were the remains of adults and children. But there were no precious objects such as jewellery. There is no mention of the ossuary in the Chronicle of Genoa, so the origin of the skeletons is unclear to this day. Even the locals did not know about the existence of the dungeon with the bones.

"Two elderly German natives I telephoned had no information about the existence of the cellar. The post-war documents in the district archives also do not mention the cellar and its use, nor, for that matter, does it mention the closure of the entire former cemetery. Inquiries with the older citizens of Genoa have so far only confirmed that no one knows anything about the existence of the cellar," Müller said at the time.

Sources: www.denik.cz, www.idnes.cz, www.rozhlas.cz