You know how I love the off the beaten path places… so today I did another day trip to the town of Kutna Hora. It’s about an hour east of Prague and I went with a tour group again. Our tour guide was from California (what’s with all these American tour guides in Prague!) but has been living in Prague for 5 years.
The town is mainly known for it’s “Bone Church” but also has a beautiful cathedral and a quaint little downtown. But first a little history.
Kutna Hora sits on top of what was once Europe’s largest silver mine. In its heyday, the mine was so productive that Kutna Hora was Bohemia’s “second city” after Prague. Much of Europe’s standard coinage was minted here and the king got a 12 percent cut of every penny! In addition to financing much of Prague’s grand architecture, these precious deposits also paid for Kutna Hora’s beautiful cathedral. But by about 1700, the mining and minting petered our and the city slumbered. Now it’s mostly appreciated by tourists as a handy day trip from Prague. Interesting other fact is that Philip Morris has a huge tobacco factory here and it’s their Central Europe headquarters.
The Sedlec Bone Church is filled with the bones of 40,000 people! Most of them are stacked in 20 foot tall pyramids. The reason so many people wanted to be buried here is that the cemetery was “seeded” with holy earth brought from Jerusalem, which made it sacred ground. The monks who first placed these bones here 400 years ago were guided by the belief that in order to live well, one must constantly remember death (memento mori- “what we are now, someday you shall be”).
The “chandelier” of bones I’m standing in front of supposedly includes at least one of every bone in the human body (I didn’t count them!). The other Bone pic was made into a giant coat of arms of the aristocratic Schwarzenberg family (they’re following me everywhere!).
The picture of the church with the green garden in front is St Barbara’s Cathedral. The cathedral was founded in 1388 by the silver miners, who dedicated it to their patron saint. The same architects that did the massive St Vitus Cathedral in Prague did this as well.
One of the other interesting pics is the stone fountain. The intensive mining released toxins spoiling the water supply so the town had to bring in clean drinking water and store it in tanks. At the end of the 15th century, this 12 sided, richly decorated Gothic structure was used to cover one of the waster tanks. Although no longer functioning, the fountain survives unchanged – the only structure like it in Bohemia.
The other pictures are buildings and views around Kutna Hora. Very cool day trip.
Hope everyone is having a great Thursday!
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 