Der Orchideengarten

Der Orchideengarten ('Garden of Orchids'; subtitled Phantastische Blatter or 'Fantastic Pages') was a Munich, German magazine that appeared for 51 issues from January, 1919 until November, 1921. Founded four years before the American magazine Weird Tales was launched in March 1923, it is hailed as the first fantasy magazine. Also described as largely 'supernatural horror', it was edited by World War I correspondent and freelance writer Karl Hans Strobl and Alfons von Czibulka, published by Drerlanderverlag. It had 24 pages per issue printed on rough book paper.

The magazine included a wide selection of fantastic stories by famous foreign authors such as Dickens, Pushkin, Charles Nodier, Maupassant, Poe, Voltaire, Gautier, Washington Irving, Hawthorne, H. G. Wells, Victor Hugo, and Karel and Josef Capek. German language writers for the magazine included Strobl, H.H. Schmizt and Leo Perutz. Illustrations included works by Gustave Dore, Tony Johannot, Rolf von Hoerschelmann, Otto Linnekogel, Karl Ritter, Heinrich Kley, and Alfred Kubin. (wikipedia)

The Capuchin Crypt in Rome

The Capuchin Crypt is a small space comprising several tiny chapels located beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini on the Via Veneto near Piazza Barberini in Rome, Italy. It contains the skeletal remains of 4,000 bodies believed to be Capuchin friars buried by their order. The Catholic order insists that the display is not meant to be macabre, but a silent reminder of the swift passage of life on Earth. There are six total rooms in the crypt, five featuring a unique display of human bones believed to have been taken from the bodies of friars who had died between 1528 and 1870.

Described by Frommer's as "one of the most horrifying images in all of Christendom", large numbers of the bones are nailed to the walls in intricate patterns, many are piled high among countless others, while others hang from the ceiling as light fixtures. (wikipedia)