#bone chapel

Igreja da Ordem Terceira de Nossa Senhora do Monte do Carmo and it’s Bone Chapel.

Faro, Portugal

Capela dos Ossos | Chapel of Bones (Évora, Portugal)

The Chapel of Bones, annexed to the Church and Convent of São Francisco (St. Francis) in Évora, is one of Portugal’s most striking Baroque ossuaries. Erected in the 17th century, it followed the model then in vogue, clearly inspired by ossuaries in Italy and Bohemia, the Chapel of Bones embodies an architectural model of penance and contemplation that spread across Catholic Europe around this period.

The chapel served both a spiritual purpose and a practical necessity. Local tradition holds that three Franciscan friars from Galicia arrived in Évora around 1224, and brought with them the Franciscan spirit of humility and reflection rooted in the teachings of Saint Francis of Assisi. Thus, in the 17th century, the chapel was erected in the place where the friars' dormitory and praying room used to be. It is a dark space deliberately, where the natural light only enters through three narrow windows on the left side. Within Catholic devotion, the Chapel of Bones holds a special significance as a site for Lenten pilgrimage and for veneration of the image of “Senhor dos Passos” (Our Lord of the Steps), known locally as Senhor Jesus da Casa dos Ossos (Lord Jesus of the Chapel of Bones). This figure, depicting Christ’s agony on the way to Calvary, enhances the atmosphere of penitence and devotion within the chapel.

Conversely, the chapel also offered a solution to an urgent practical issue: the overcrowding of monastic burial grounds. At the time, the city’s numerous convents had accumulated human remains in forty-two monastic cemeteries, occupying valuable space. To make better use of that land, the bones were exhumed and relocated to serve a new, symbolic function, becoming the decorative and structural fabric of this unique chapel. The walls, arches and eight pillars that make it up are covered with thousands of human bones and skulls, carefully arranged with geometric precision and held together with brown cement. The frescoes decorating the vaulted ceiling, dating from 1810, feature a variety of symbols illustrated by biblical passages and others featuring the instruments of the Passion of Christ. In addition to the bones, the chapel is also decorated with religious statues and Renaissance and Baroque style paintings.

The epitaph above the entrance, “Nós ossos que aqui estamos, pelos vossos esperamos” (We bones that here do lie, for yours do we bide), sets the tone for the experience that follows, summing up the chapel’s purpose as a memento mori. In fact, the Bone Chapel is supposed to leave a lasting impression on the visitors, with the intention of provoking through the imagery alluding to death, compelling us to pause from worldly distractions, to reflect on the transience of earthly life and the consequent commitment to a permanent Christian experience—these themes were also in tune with the spirit of the religious counter-reformation, according to the norms of the Council of Trent. Overall, it is estimated that there are around 5,000 human skulls found there, among countless bones, decorating this monument of penitential architecture.

The Roman temple at Évora, details of the bone chapel, a chapel with walls of bones a few feet thick, and the famous Almendres stone “circle”, one of the oldest in Europe. We saw more but my pictures aren’t great.

Capel of Bones in Évora, Portugal