The charnel house is located directly behind the parish church of St. Stephen and is without doubt a jewel of late Romanesque architecture that is unrivalled in all of Europe. The building was built around 1240/50, probably on the orders of the last Babenberg duke, Frederick II, by a Norman construction company that had previously worked in Jak in western Hungary - there is an almost identical funnel portal there.
Ossuary and chapel
The basement of the charnel house served until 1785 as an ossuary for the exhumed bones from the cemetery that still surrounded the parish church at the time. Its upper floor is actually a cemetery chapel. A restored quarter-arch staircase leads to the entrance. The entrance to the charnel house is a jewel in itself: the magnificent Romanesque funnel portal literally draws the visitor inside and thus into times long past.