Hotels near Beinhaus at St. Michael's Chapel

The Beinhaus, or Charnel House, is a small stone ossuary attached to the Catholic parish Church of Maria am Berg, above the Marktplatz. Because the village cemetery has no room to expand - the mountain rises immediately behind it - remains have historically been exhumed after 10 to 15 years and stored in the ossuary. The Beinhaus contains more than 1,200 skulls, of which 610 are painted with names, dates, and decorative motifs of ivy, oak leaves, and roses corresponding to the deceased's family or profession. The practice began around 1720 and continued until 1995, when the last skull was added at the request of the deceased. Entry is EUR 2, and the chapel is open daily from 10:00 to 18:00 between May and October, with reduced hours in winter. The space is genuinely small, holding no more than about eight visitors at a time.

Pro Tip: Look for the skull painted with a serpent and dated 1862 - it belonged to a village woman and is one of the few examples where the motif clearly departs from the standard floral vocabulary, indicating something specific about her life that the parish register still records.