3.22.2008

Synchronicity of Alien Blue.

So I'm trying to patch up some plot holes and I decide the bartender's father, an atheist who ends up trying to recreate the crucifixion (dying in the process), went nuts during WWII in Czechoslovakia while he was being hidden in the basement of a Catholic church (he was a commie, and the Nazis [right-wing] killed commies [left-wing] as quick as they could catch them, too). Because this story is basically a "hiding an outcast in the basement" story, with beer. So I start looking up churches, which leads me to catacombs...the first catacomb I come upon is Katakomby Klatovske:
The crypt of the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception and St. Ignatius, nowadays known as the Klatovy Catacombs, was built between 1656 and 1676. As intended by the master builders, the crypt was the last resting place of members of the Jesuit Order and their benefactors from amongst the local nobility, army and burghers. Between 1676 and 1783 over 200 bodies were laid to rest here. In 1784 Emperor Joseph II banned interment in crypts, so the last to be buried here was Antonín Weichs. Perhaps the best-known person resting here is Father Albert Chanovský of Dlouhá Ves, a missionary operating in south-west Bohemia in the first half of the 17th century.

The bodies were laid on a bed of hops in oak coffins.
Yep. It's all about the beer.

Update: Click here for pictures. Scroll down to find the mummies...remind you of Snow White's glass coffin at all? Anyway, among other things, the place was used for a library after 1900, and was not destroyed/rebuilt during/after WWII. Whew :)