The cemetery church is a two-storey building of the “charnel” type from the 14th century. In 1278, according to a legend, the cemetery in Sedlec was scattered with dirt brought by monks from Jerusalem, and thus the cemetery became the oldest “Holy Field” in Central Europe and a popular burial place. After the plague of 1318, over 30,000 dead were buried in Sedlec, and another 10,000 dead were buried in the cemetery during the Hussite Wars. According to extant sources, the cemetery in Sedlec occupied an area of 35,000 m2.

At the end of 15. century, most of the graves were removed. The exhumed skeletal remains of about 40,000 dead were placed in the lower chapel of the church, where, according to the legend, a half-blind Sedlec monk in 1511 arranged them in large pyramids. The Josephine reforms led to the abbey’s dissolution at the end of the 18th century and the church came into the possession of the Schwarzenberg family from Orlík, who had the original Baroque skeletal decoration, probably designed by the genius architect Jan Blažej Santini-Aichl, repaired and completed by their carver and master builder František Rint (1870). The cemetery church with the ossuary is a unique cultural and historical monument. Currently, the leaning church building is undergoing a complete renovation, which includes making the outdoor terraces accessible and implementing a new conceptual solution for its visitor traffic while preserving the original legacy of its unique “memento mori” skeletal decoration associated with the hope of resurrection.