Kutna Hora

Well yesterday went to Kutna Hora, 73 kilometres east of Prague. Although it was the bone church that attracted me to visit, there was much, much more. When I first walked into the Ossuary Chapel (Bone Church), I was blown away. It was not what I expected as it was so different to the one I had seen previously in Evora, Portugal. In Kutna Hora, the bones were used solely for decoration, not as part of the structure such as in the walls. There was a huge chandelier containing every bone of the human body. It was an amazing sight at about 2 metres across and1.5 metres high. In the traditional alcove at the entracnce where normally a vase of flowers is kept, instead there was the bone version of that. Mind you the pyramid piles of bones in the four corners did nothing for me! It is actually a chapel in the cemetery which still surrounds it today with the church, with which it is associated, being across the road. Well worth a visit I must say.

Inside the chapel at Kutna Hora

As for what else is there -Kutna Hora is avery pretty town with a central square surrounded by colourful, old buildings. Further into the old town is a cathedral with very attractive stained glass windows, painted not mosaics of glass though, huge wooden altars with religious paintings and some slowly decaying frescoes. It is presently under renovation with a new roof already having been put on.

What I didn't realise was that for 400 years, Kutna Hora was a major source of European silver, obtained from vertical shafts up to 600 metres deep. Today there is a silver museum plus you can go on a mine tour to learn all about it and go along some of the underground passages. Of course, I had to tag along with a schoolgroup and the guide was in Czech but at least I got some written pages to read which covered most of the details. It was interesting all the same. The only problem is that I would have enjoyed longet there but had to catch the bus back toPrague and the rain had started, later to become like a tropical downpour, except it is not the tropics.!

Kutna Hora street