Kutná Hora
Yesterday, my friend Skye and I hopped on a bus and went on a day trip to the Czech town of Kutná Hora.
Kutná Hora, an old silver-mining town, was the second richest city in Czechoslovakia during the 13th century. But a series of wars and environmental disasters destroyed the mines, and by the mid-16th century Kutná Hora was totally devastated…
Today – nearly 5 centuries later – UNESCO has named Kutná Hora a World Heritage Site.
Friday was (relatively) warm and sunny, so Skye and I had a really nice time wandering around the beautifully cobbled streets of this sleepy little town. (We also noticed that the people here are much friendlier than the people in Prague and decided that – if ever we were to live in the Czech Republic – this would be the place for us!)
Kutná Hora is home to a slew of incredible historic buildings. There’s the gothic, five-naved St. Barbara Church (Kostel Sv. Barbory), the Italian Court (Vlašský dvůr)—and, last but certainly not least, the insane Sedlec Ossuary (Kostnice Sedlec).
The Sedlec Ossuary is a small, 15th century Roman Catholic chapel located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints (Hřbitovní kostel Všech Svatých) in the suburb of Sedlec.
From afar, the place looks like a run-of-the-mill cemetery/Church combo, but there are more than 40’000 human skeletons decorating – yeah, decorating – the interior of this chapel!
Scaaaary!
Thouroughly creeped out, Skye and I grabbed a quick coffee at a nearby café and (happily) jumped back into the bus to Prague.
We had crazy dreams, woke up late, and spent today in idle—desperately trying to recover from the morbidity overdose…
Filed under: Blogroll, Czech Republic, Travel | 1 Comment
oh shit. i have read about this place with all the bones before. totally creepy, but totally intriguing. kind of like a car wreck – you can’t help but look. i can’t believe you visited the church in person! do people hang out there like it ain’t no thang? would be hard to have an uplifting sunday mass there.