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A very nice daytrip from Prague is a visit to Kutna Hora. This is a small city with 22.000 inhabitants, at 60 kilometres east from Prague, about an hour driving.
Kutna Hora is one of the nicest town in Bohemia, with its Medieval Citycentre. The streets are narrow, full of curves and wonderful to take a walk through. Then there are two big central squares with restaurants and cafe's and nice buildings around them and there are some important attractions to visit.
An impressive line of religious, baroc statues lead towards the Barbara Cathedral. This was built between 1388 and 1558 and really is a beautiful building. In a very own gothical style, the church rises high above all other buildings in the city. Inside there is a lot to see, but the outside stays the must impressive of all.
In the centre itself are several buildings that are dedicated to the Silver industry of Kutna Hora. The presence of silver mines nearby made the city to wealthy centre in its region, and still is important. The rest of the centre has lots of other old buildings. Enough to fill a day.
And the most extraordinairy building in Kutna Hora definitely is the Bonehouse of Sedlec. This is a very strange chapel belonging to an old cloister. The interior is completely decorated with bones, from over 40.000 people. The bones come from the graveyard nearby where lots of people wanted to be buried because they believed it was sacred ground. Because of the Pest epidemia though, it became too full. In 1870, when the complex was renovated, the owner decided to used the countless bones to decorate the interior. Artist Frantisek Rint made the church into what it is now: an unbelieveble place where death and beauty are very close to each other. Leave a Comment
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Take a daytrip by train to the bohemian village of Kutna Hora which is declared as a world heritage. The famous St. Barbara's Cathedral of Kutna Hora is one of the most beautiful Czech Gothic buildings.
The village is located about 75 km east of Prague. A return train ticket was about 158 CZK in 2003 (about 3,50 EURO). Leave a Comment
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About an hours train journey away is the old town of Kutna Hora, which is famous for its Bone Church. I was interested to see this place as I had seen Ewan McGregors motorbike adventure 'The Long way Round' stop here, and as I find this sort of stuff interesting it was a must see for myself. The town itself is great with many old places of interest to visit and wander around.... The Trip there and back shouldn't set you back more than $12 Leave a Comment
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Kutna Hora is a nice town about 65 km. south-east of Prague. It was a silver mining town in medieval times. In fact, in the 13th century rich silver deposits were discovered in the vicinity of this town.
The highlight of Kutna Hora is the gotic Curch of S. Barbora. Its building begun in 1368 and was completed only in 1905. The construction work was interrupted several times. It was financed by the miners' guild. The church has many frescoes inside.
I went to Kutna Hora by train, from Hlavni nŕdrazi. The train stopped in Sedlec. There I took a bus to Kutna Hora. Otherwise I should have walked at least three kilometers.
I should recommend not to go to Kutna Hora on sundays, because there are not many buses from Sedlec to the town and vice versa. Leave a Comment
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Kutná Hora is a gorgeous little town that was once the second-most important place in the CR. Most visitors come here to appreciate the history and architecture, which is truly unique. Kutna Hora is listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO. Be sure to visit the old silver mint, and just walk around the town, maybe stopping into one of the excellent cukarnas for some sweets and hot cocoa.
The early history of Kutna Hora revolves around the silver mines that made the city one of the richest and most important in medieval Bohemia during the 14th and 15th centuries. The first evidence of mining in the area goes back to the 10th century, but it was the discovery of major silver deposits in the 13th century that changed the future of the little village 70 km from Prague.
The silver mines in the area became so rich that, at the very beginning of the 14th century, Czech King Vaclav II bestowed upon Kutna Hora the privileges of a royal town and instituted a currency reform, closing all other mints in the country. With the aid of Italian craftsmen, he founded a royal mint in Kutna Hora that produced the Prague groschen, a coin that used throughout central Europe into the 19th century. He also began construction on a palace here, though it was later used as a royal mint. Its name, Italian Court, reflects the influence of the minters from Florence. (You can tour this place: it's Vlassky Dvur=Italian Court.)
The town's mines also attracted a great number of German-speaking immigrants, who brought advanced mining methods and became the town's largest ethnic group.
In the 13th and 14th centuries, Kutna Hora became the financial center for the Czech kingdom and its second most important city after Prague. At the end of the 14th century, it had a population equal to London's. Much of the town's wealth went towards the development of Prague, but some also went to the construction of a number of impressive buildings in Kutna Hora itself. The oldest is the church of St. James (Sv. Jakub), though it pales artisitically in comparison to the Cathedral of St. Barbara, one of the grandest cathedrals in Central Europe. The church dedicated to St. Barbara, patron of miners, was probably begun in 1380 and the chapel and choir were completed in 1420. The town also features a number of other churches, a former Jesuit College, an Ursuline Convent and a Cistercian monastery. (Note: all of these are quite beautiful.)
Another landmark, and a very popular and somewhat more unusual one, is the Kostnice (ossuary) in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutna Hora. See my separate entry on this, above.
Unfortunately for the town, the silver mines began to run out in the 16th century, and the last groschen was minted there in 1549. By the 17th century the production of silver in the town had reached such lows that pillaging Swedes were bought off with beer, not silver. The fortunes of the town continued to decline, until in 1727 the mint was finally closed completely. Leave a Comment
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Sedlec (Kutna Hora)
This is an hour away on the intercity trains that go to Brno from the main train station in Prague. The notice boards are a complete mystery but the information desk will print you a useful timetable.
The cemetery of the Sedlec monastery became the burial place for the rich after the abbot took a handful of sacred earth and sprinkled it at the monastery. After plague and war the cemetery was enlarged but later some parts were abolished, stacking the bones up outside the chapel. Eventually the bones were used to decorate the Ossuary by a woodcarver, Francis Rint. You don’t need to be religious to appreciate it - very creepy! Leave a Comment
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Take a trip about an hour out of the city to Sedlec, a small town adjacent to the historic and picturesque Kutna Hora. Sedlec has an ossuary (bone church) decorated with thousands of human bones. It's really something to see.
The history: In the 13th century, the abbot of the monastery in Sedlec was sent by the Czech king on a mission to Jerusalem, and he returned with a handful of earth from Golgotha, which he sprinkled on his monastery's graveyard. This made the cemetery a popular burial site for nobility all over Central Europe. As a result, a huge number of bones accumulated, and in 1870 a woodcarver named Frantisek Rint was commissioned to do something with them. The most notable are the bells in each corner and the chandelier that includes every bone in the human body. The artist also signed his name in bones along the right wall at the bottom of the steps. The ossuary contains the bones of about 40,000 people. Leave a Comment
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Majority of tourists never go outside of Prague. It is really big pity. Czech Republic is not only Prage but also landscape, mountins, villages, towns. "Kutna Hora" with its "Temple of Saint Barbara" (in czech Svata Barbora) as a representant of gothic architecture is one of the cities which are to be highly reccomended to visit. Stunning temple under UNESCO is monumental. Besides you may feel spirit of normal typical czech town. Prague is very often very busy. "Kutna Hora" is smaller, calmer with people more willing to help. People, especially older people do not speak much foreign languages so they may be aware to talk to you. Do not give up! Learn few words in czech like Hello=Ahoj, Thank you= dik and you will see smiles on people?s faces.
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KUTNÁ HORA - not far from Prague is a town with a long history of mining industry and one beautiful Church of Sv. Barbora.
Other very nice pictures from this region you can see on http://www.kutnahora.cz ! Also in English language. Leave a Comment
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A half-hour drive east of Prague is the splendidly Gothic Kutná Hora, the medieval silver-mining town where the film version of Les Misérables was shot. The distinctive spires of its Cathedral of St.Barbara - whose roof seems to be draped from them - dominate the old centre of town, from where you can still don a hood and descend into the mineshafts. Be sure not to miss the macabre baroque-era ossuary, where monks arranged the bones of plague victims into fantastic decorative sculptures and chandeliers. Admission 110Kc. Open 9am-5pm Oct, Apr; 9am-6pm Sept, May-June; 10am-6pm, July-Aug; closed Mon. Ossuary, Zámecká 127, Kutná Hora (00 420 327 561 143). Admission 30Kc. Open 9am-noon, 1pm-5pm Oct-Apr; 8am-6pm May-Sept. Leave a Comment Phone: 327 512 159
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