Legendary Locations - Game of Bones and Unknowns

The Basilica of St. Ursula may look like your average German church, but beneath its façade lurks a dark secret. A room known as the “Golden Chamber” is made entirely of what’s said to be human bones. Cologne—a city known for worship, with the highest density of churches north of the Alps—is a center for intense religious faith. And while I admittedly might not come here often to pray or confess my sins, I do find myself stumbling in here every time I’m in Cologne.

According to local legend, the space was built to enshrine the remains of St. Ursula and her 11,000 virgin handmaidens. In the 4th century, St. Ursula and her virgins made a pilgrimage to Cologne, Germany, where they were promptly martyred by the rapacious Huns. In 1155 their mass grave was discovered, and the church built to house the bones. Today, the Golden Chamber is a macabre masterpiece, a massive reliquary described as a “veritable tsunami of ribs, shoulder blades, and femurs… arranged in zigzags and swirls and even in the shapes of Latin words.”

Gilded skulls adorned with garlands and ornately decorated busts pay homage to the saint and her comrades. But is this incredible tale true?