Skeletons had different meaning in different times. Medieval Europe was fascinated with the issue of death after Black Death pandemic and throughout the Catholic world, many charnel houses were build around Europe. These ossuaries were often called the Church of the Bones. They were a reminder to people that life is temporary, while the death is permanent. Bones also symbolized the building block of the human body, so the bones were used in the churches as a building block in true spiritual and religious sense for these people. In the peak of the late feudal era, there were hundreds of these charnel houses around Europe. In Czech Republic there are still several Bone churches open to public. While many people in the 21st century are puzzled by the existence, they were nothing to be feared in the middle ages. I had visited several of them and I really liked them. I think how these people looked, what were their hopes and worries, what they were doing for livelihood, and how they died.
Some of the bone churches in Bohemia:
