Kutna Hora

Kutna Hora is a wacky place, it is located about 69km east from Prague and has had UNESCO World Heritage Site since the mid 90's.

Historically the once substantial wealth and politico-military power of the town(s), especially between the 13th to 15th centuries, was founded on the copious deposits of silver and the attendant boom in silver mining that occurred in the region. However, this has not been the case for nearly half a Millennia now as the towns principle silver mine was irretrievably flooded in the mid 16th century.  The towns’ prestige also eroded drastically over the centuries through the deleterious effects of various wars, the Austro-Hungarian occupation and numerous devastating plagues.

Our first stop was the eerie Sedlec Ossuary. I can’t deny that principally it’s my morbid curiosity with regards to the ossuary, one of the town’s main tourist draws I think, that has drawn me here today.

The Ossuary houses four enormous bell-shaped mounds of bones and occupy the corners of the chapel. An enormous chandelier of bones, which contains at least one of every bone in the human body, hangs from the centre of the nave with garlands of skulls draping the vaults.  One other prominent “artpiece” is the large Schwarzenberg coat-of-arms.  Of the large amounts of bodies bequeathed to the earth as a result of recurrent, severe plagues; 30,000 bodies are estimated to be buried here from a Great Plague in 1318 alone!  This is possibly not a spot for the easily spooked or squeamish but I think this is a really great, not run-of-the-mill sight to see if you’re up for the trip out to it.

Our second stop was St Barbara's Church which was an amazingly beautiful 3 spires Gothic Church. It houses a lot of renaissance and baroque artwork.  The church is visible all over Kutna Hora. Amazingly, construction of this church began is 1388, but was not finished until 1905.

Onwards to the Kutna Hora town centre and a very becalming and pretty one it is too.  The beauty of Prague, but a much quieter and smaller one.
There are many more churches and a museum of the old royal mint.  This involves a local guide which shows you some of the old coins under each King.

This was quite an interesting tour, although again our tour group kept to themselves a lot and weren't interested in chatting to us, we're beginning to think we're frightening :(

After this 6 hour journey, we again went and had a hearty meal and dessert at Cafe Slavia and then a walk along the river before we headed home to rest our tired eyes.

Tomorrow, we do an Underground Tour of Prague's Old Town and a Dinner Cruise along the river.