Warning before reading!
This post is not for the faint hearted persons.
My, by now very familiar question that is repeated once a week every week says: “What to do on my free days? Where to go and what to explore this time?”
Yesterday I didn’t lose much time bothering of being hesitant, yesterday it was not so difficult to decide where to go. After a brief reflection, I decided to take a day trip from Lisbon. Based on the facts Evora quickly took the victory. To be honest based on the Chapel of Bones. This city is located one hour from Lisbon by car so if you are here near Lisbon or you are coming here to spend some time and you are really into this, I recommend you to go there.
I guess there are many of you who have visited this kind of a chapel somewhere in the world because I just found out that there are a lot of them, but for me this was the first time that I entered in something like this. Must admit, didn’t know how to react at the beginning. Couldn’t hide my huge eyes wide open and confused expression of my face.
Capela dos Ossos or how we call it in English Chapel of Bones is a fascinating chapel with a very macabre atmosphere that I am speaking about. As a part of the Royal Church of St. Francis, this small interior chapel is located next to its entrance.
5 000 bones found their home to the final resting place there, all exhumed from the city’s graveyards in the 16th Century.
WHY? Why the hell they wanted to do that? Who dug the graveyards and carried the bones? Who is enough crazy to do that?!?
These were my questions! Again, couldn’t hide my huge eyes wide open and confused expression of my face.
Than they explained!
In the 16th century the city was covered with more than 43 cemeteries in and around it. It would not be a problem if that weren’t taking up very valuable land. Since it was very necessary for them to take the land back to the community in order to be used by the living ones, they had to do something about it. Now you can guess what they did…
They didn’t want to condemn the souls of the people buried there, so they decided to build this Chapel and relocate the bones. However, they could just put the bones behind closed doors or they could just relocate them somewhere where the land is not so valuable, right? Again, it didn’t have any sense. But, then they explained more.
By then, the monks were very concerned about the values of society because the city had contained a lot of wealth. Because of that they thought that this would provide Évora with a helpful and a significant place for finding a peace to re-examine your own self and to think about the transience of material things in the undeniable presence of death. Interesting thought, isn’t it? 🤔
You still remember the title of this post?
"We bones, are here, waiting for yours."
Portuguese translation "Nós ossos que aqui estamos, pelos vossos esperamos,"
This message explains the given explanation. It's a bit morbid, and a bit scary message which is written above the chapel door at the entrance. Basically it is provoking you to step inside whether you are afraid or not. You simply cannot resist the curiosity that comes over you. At least, I couldn't 😄
This Chapel of Bones is both a creepy and spellbinding experience, but at the end I liked it.
I did not have nightmares and I didn't collapse into unconsciousness there, so for me this was a successful live-dead expedition 😅
Apart from this little, ghoulish "at the end not so scary" story, the city tells many other beautiful stories. Évora is a fascinating place to delve into the past and has a lot to offer. I highly recommend this small town to visit, whether you are interested in this chapel or not.
For more information about the city click on the following link 👉 Visit Evora
I hope I did not scare you a lot 😇
Love, K.
I really like the way you are combining pictures with storytelling. I watched some documentaries about this Chapel, and I hope I will have opportunity to visit it one day. Anyway, keep posting stuff like this. I hope you will stay on the Steemit for a long time.
Normalno, mi sa Balkana se lako snađemo u svakoj novoj sredini :-) Pozdrav iz Novog Sada!
Heej @hidden84 :) Lijepo si me iznenadio s drugim dijelom na nasem jeziku :)) Hvala ti na komplimentu i lijepim rijecima :) Budes li imao prilike, svrati kod Steemit Balkan familije u Lisbonu :)) Pozdrav Novom Sadu!! :))
This reminds me so much of this one movie called "As above so below".
Thank you for sharing this, maybe one day i could come here and see this chapel.
I didn't watch the movie but I can guess what it is about :) Thank you for reading and commenting :))
Congratulations @katarinazaja, this post is the forth most rewarded post (based on pending payouts) in the last 12 hours written by a Dust account holder (accounts that hold between 0 and 0.01 Mega Vests). The total number of posts by Dust account holders during this period was 16796 and the total pending payments to posts in this category was $5680.52. To see the full list of highest paid posts across all accounts categories, click here.
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Thank you for letting me know! I appreciate it :)
Nikada nisam ni vidio ovoliko lubanja. Odlican tekst.
Svugdje nas ima.
Hvala ti @keyss :) Da, posvuda smo :D
Бар је разлог нешто хуманији него онај турски, кад су правили у Нишу ћеле-кулу…
https://www.tripadvisor.rs/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g295382-d553863-i202372193-Skull_Tower-Nis_Central_Serbia.html
Занимљива прича, @katarinazaja, добро си је сложила.
@lighteye hvala ti!! :) Nisam znala za ovo u Nisu, stavila sam si sad vec to u bucket list :) Hvala sto si podijelio ovu informaciju. Zanimljivo je to sve skupa, taj prizor, pozadinska prica, granica zivota i smrti ... Da ne uzlazim u dubioze hehe u svakom slucaju hvala! :)
I’ve only read about the City of Bones in novels and seeing them here, it’s so chilling. 😨 I love learning about History and this has been a really interesting and educational post, thanks for this! 😊 Cheers!
Thank you @monicacope 😊 you should try to find one somewhere close to you to get a better impression 😊 Cheers! 🤗
creepy photos but amazing! It looks like from the movie Indiana Jones. :)
:)) haha yeah, it could be :))
I’ve been there too! Very creepy but impressive to see :)
Really??? Wow! Than you know everything :)) Yes, I agree with you 🤗
You really did scare the devil out of me. I mean, is this thing real? I would have several nightmares after visiting this place. Still it must have some sort of magnetic effect- drawing, as it were, the curious to probe further.
For once, I'm thankful I'm not near Lisbon right now !
Hahaha :)) Please accept my deep apologize, didn't want to scary you :D you still can come to Lisbon, it's not so close to this :P
Bok @chr0nix pridruži nam se na novo podignutom Discord serveru za Hrvatske Steemit korisnike (nije bitno jesi diaspora), detaljnije o ideji možeš pročitati u linku ispod
(ispričavam se ukoliko si već tamo, ovaj komentar post-am po redu svima)
https://steemit.com/steemit/@ivan.atman/official-croatian-discord-server-is-up-and-croatian-steemit-association-is-up-hrvatska-udruga-steemit-korisnika-husk
Oho! Budem, budem, hvala :))
👍 vidimo se tamo
👍
Chorvatština! ;-)
Hahaha :D
Congratulations @katarinazaja!
Your post was mentioned in the hit parade in the following category:
Wow! :D What a lovely surprise! Thank you @arcange! I appreciate that a lot <3
@Katarinazaja it is pleasure to follow you! Nice post! Thanks for sharing! I suggest it would be really interesting experience!! Have a fun!!
It's pleasure to be followed by you ;) thank you! :)))
Koliko god zastrašujuće bilo toliko je fascinantno i divno.
Da, slazem se u potpunosti :)
This is an amazing post and visit! Not sure what the obsession with skulls specifically is, but it may be our fascination with death or ultimately the unknown. Great pictures. Been wanting to visit Portugal to check out the abandoned underground subway tunnels with the Fernando Pessoa writings all over, have you ever heard of those or been there? If I can make it to Portugal soon, I will definitely add this to the itinerary!