10/29/2026
It's spooky season, and that's got us thinking of some of Europe's most macabre experiences. So if you're looking to add a shiver to your trip, here are a few bone-chilling sights to consider visiting:
Church of St. Francis (Évora, Portugal)
The highlight of this church is its Chapel of Bones, where thousands of human bones line the walls and a chorus of skulls stares blankly at you. This was the work of three monks who, concerned their society was valuing the wrong things, took it upon themselves to remind everyone of their place in the world. Évora was noted for its wealth in the early 1600s, and the monks thought the chapel a helpful place to meditate on the transience of material things in the undeniable presence of death. The message above the chapel door translates as: "We bones in here wait for yours to join us."
Bone Chapel (Hallstatt, Austria)
Tucked above this storybook town is a small dark room lined with more than 1,200 skulls. In central Europe, cemetery burial is not always permanent — and since space was so limited in Hallstatt's tiny graveyard, bones only had 10 peaceful years of burial before being dug up to make way for the freshly dead. The skulls were moved here, and many were carefully decorated and marked with the deceased's name and date of death. Family names — Steiner…Kierschlager…Binder — are stacked together, offering a poignant and eerily tangible chronicle of this little community.
Fontanelle Cemetery (Naples, Italy)
These quirky caves began in a similar manner to Hallstatt's bone chapel, when local churches with crowded burial grounds moved the bones of their long dead here to make room for the newly dead. Later, these caves housed the bones of plague victims and paupers — and in the 19th century, many churches again emptied their cemeteries, adding even more skulls to this vast ossuary. But then a cult of devout locals started to "adopt" the remains. They named the skulls, put them in little houses, brought them flowers, and asked them to intervene with God for favors. If you visit, consider bringing some flowers as well…and maybe let your hotel know where you're going (in case you don't return).
Bone voyage!
