Kranj Ossuary

Kostnica

Useful Information

Location:	Glavni trg 4, 4000 Kranj. (46.238938, 14.355724)
Open:	All year Tue-SUn, Hol 10-18. Closed 01-JAN, 01-MAY, 01-NOV, Easter, Christmas. [2025]
Fee:	Adults EUR 3.60, Children EUR 2, Seniors EUR 2, Family EUR 7.20. Museum route: Adults EUR 8.50, Children EUR 6. [2025]
Classification:	Catacomb
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Gorenjski muzej, Tomšičeva 42, SI-4000 Kranj, Tel: +-4-201-39-50. info@gorenjski-muzej.si
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1953	excavations of large ancient Slovenian burial ground adjacent to the parish church of Kranj.
1973	archaeological excavations completed.
1981	Archeological monument established.

Description

Kranj Ossuary is not the name of this site, it’s the English descriptive term used conveniently to describe the site in tourist guide books. It is an ossuary, and it is located below the marketplace and the original name is Kostnica which is simply the Slovenian word for Ossuary. Actually the ossuary has been a sort of crypt where the bones were stored. A timeline of the excavations is on display through photographs and drawings of the excavated items. There are the stone foundations of the late-roman octagonal baptistery with a half-circle apse on the eastern side. Then there are the remains of the lower walls of the circular catacomb from the end of the 13th century. Next is the cemetery chapel with a tomb from the 15th century which belonged to the Counts of Eghk who owned the Brdo Castle in vicinity of Kranj. There is also a newer ossuary, which is filled with meticulously arranged layers of skulls and skeletal remains of the deceased.

The rock formation above the confluence of the Sava and Kokra rivers has a strategic feature: the excellent defensive position. It is easily fortified and allows the control of the traffic on both rivers. It’s easy to understand why the site was inhabited since the Neolithic Age until today. The oldest findings were fragments of pottery vessels, stone tools and wooden huts, the remain of farmers and livestock breeders. There are remains of Bronze Age and Iron Age, Roman influence, iron mining resulted in a settlement which was excavated on Glavni trg. They all had to bury their dead, and there are numerous burial grounds, but here at the church St. Kancijan the graveyard was used since the 7th century. The oldest graves have extensive, stone-lined grave pits. The deceased were buried according to Christian custom, with almost no accessories. But there were two graves containing earrings, such as those worn by indigenous women in the 7th and 8th centuries. Then the Slavic population arrived and the number of burials increased. Their customs were different and the graves contain in the women’s graves earrings, eye rings, rings and necklaces, and in the men’s an iron knife. The disappearance of these differences indicates the fusion of natives and immigrants. All in all the excavations have revealed almost 1,500 indigenous and Slavic graves.

Now it becomes rather obvious, 1,500 burials during the Early Middle Ages alone, but the people were buried here until the 18th century, almost a millennia. The space for burials was restricted, and so a round ossuary or ossuarium was built in the 13th century at the latest. The people were buried in graves, but when new graves were dug remains of the buried were found, mostly bones. Those remains were then relocated to the ossuary. The Chapel of Mary, first mentioned in 1317, was built above the ossuary and served as a cemetery church. In 1463, Henrik Egkh, the member of a noble family living in a house nearby rebuilt the chapel as his family tomb. The upper level was still used as chapel, but the lower level contained now the family grave, in addition to the ossuary. The chapel burned down in 1668, it was never actually rebuilt and so it was closed a few decades later and finally demolished in 1789. It seems this was the time when the ossuary was not used any more.

The ossuary was forgotten until 1972, when the lower, buried part of the chapel was reopened during archaeological research. The excavations of ancient burial grounds in Kranj was started in 1953. The excavations went on for decades, on and off, until finally in 1973 they were completed. So there was this archaeological site in the middle of the city which was finally established as an Archeological monument in 1981. It is part of the Gorenjski Muzej, the historic museum of Krajn, which is located in the town hall. The site is actually located beneath the town square, but it is reached from the cellar of the town hall. The excavations were deeper than the marketplace, and so they are now underground and qualify as a subterranea.

The Gorenjski Muzej has three sites, which are all worth a visit. These are Grad Khislstein (Khislstein Castle), the Mestna hiša (Town Hall), and Prešernova hiša (Prešeren House). Actually it has even more sites but the others are accessible only by reservation.