Ossuaries

underground ossuary in Paris, France

An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary ("os" is "bone" in Latin). The greatly reduced space taken up by an ossuary means that it is possible to store the remains of many more people in a single tomb than possible in coffins. The practice is sometimes known as grave recycling.

church

Stavropigal monastery in Bulgaria

Catholic church in Rome, Italy

ossuary located in Meuse, in France

small interior chapel in Evora, Portugal

church building in Altstadt-Nord, Germany

limestone box asserted to be that which originally held the bones of James of the New Testament, but contested as a forgery

church

ossuary chapel in Kudowa, Poland

church in Rome, Italy

cultural heritage site in Peru

cultural heritage site in Peru

cemetery located in Pas-de-Calais, in France

burial site in Czech Republic

museum park in the vicinity of Pleven, Bulgaria

building in Faro, Faro District, Portugal

chapel, Ossuary in Bratislava, Slovakia

thumb|right|A geriten. Geriten, or "head-house", is the skull-house of the Karo people of North Sumatra, Indonesia. It is a pavilion-like structure with a distinctively shaped roof that acted as an ossuary where the skulls of chiefs and important individuals were preserved after their deaths.

small Capuchin crypt in Rome, Italy

toll gate in Paris, France