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KarnerOssuary, two-storeyed, mostly round or polygonal chapel in a cemetery; the lower part was used an ossuary, the upper part was a place of devotion and worship. These charnel-houses were common all over Europe but most of them were built in 13th and 14th centuries in southern Germany and in Austria (in Lower Austria and Carinthia ). Richly decorated ossuaries (mainly portal decorations and frescoes) are in Mödling, Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, Pulkau, Hainburg, Tulln, Friedersbach, Mistelbach (all in Lower Austria), Villach, Friesach, Maria Saal (Carinthia), Hartberg, St. Lambrecht (Styria.) and Mauthausen (Upper Austria). Literature: W. Westerhoff, Karner in Österreich und Südtirol, 1989.
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