Kassel, Germany

Museum of Sepulchral Culture

This German museum is devoted to all aspects of grave culture from headstones to coffins.

It’s one thing to display the skulls and bones of the dead, but it’s a whole other thing to take a look at the deathly culture that surrounds the dead and buried. Germany’s Museum of Sepulchral Culture is just such a collection, displaying coffins, headstones, funeral clothes, and more.

Opened in 1992, the museum caters to all aspects of funeral culture. Going back to the Middle Ages, the Museum of Sepulchral culture traces the history and development of of burial in the Western world via artifacts and pictorial presentations. Among the large collection on display in the museum are shrouds, burial attire, gravestones, coffins, carriages, and jewelry, just to name a few of the types of things for visitors to view.

Among some of the more notable exhibitions in the collection include a display dedicated to Ghana’s strange and festive coffin building culture, and the strange connections between dancing and death, looking at the Tibetan dance of the dead and even invitations to flamenco funerals.

In addition to all of the strange and somber artifacts there is also a section simply devoted to skull and death decorated clothing jewelry and books. At first blush, the Museum of Sepuchral Culture might seem morbid, but death is going to kill us all one day, might as well learn about the funeral culture we will one day all have to embrace.