Friday, September 28th
Our first stop in Kutná Hora was Sedlec Ossuary. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Black Death and the Hussite Wars gave Kutná Hora far more corpses than it had places to put them. The ossuary, a small Roman Catholic chapel under a church in the cemetery, was the solution to that problem. A half-blind monk started stacking bones there after 1511, and in 1870 the bones were arranged into decorations by a woodcarver named František Rint. It's estimated that the ossuary contains bones from the skeletons of 40,000 to 70,000 people.
Our next stop was the much-less-creepy-but-much-lengthier-titled Church of the Assumption of Our Lady and John the Baptist. The church is an example of baroque architecture.
We were then dropped off down town, where we were allowed to wander around for a while. These interesting characters could also be seen wandering around town.
On the left is Saint Barbara's Church, while on the right is the Jesuit college.
The building with the large tower is the Church of Saint James.
After a couple hours of wandering, it was time to tour the silver mine. Silver mining, which had begun in Kutná Hora by 1260, played an important role in the town's history. In fact, the Kutná in Kutná Hora might have been derived from the old Czech word for mining, kutáni. If so, the town's name means Mining Mountain. (Another possibility is that Kutná was derived from kutten, the word for the hoods the town's monks wore.) To venture into the silver mine, we had to don smocks, hard hats, and lanterns.
We then had to take a short through town to reach the mine. Kelsey thought our parade was the perfect opportunity to practice her queen wave.
Inside the mine, Bettina tested her light to make sure it worked.
At times, the passage through the mine was a bit narrow.
After sitting in complete darkness, squeezing through narrow passages, and bumping our heads against the ceiling a few times, we were in the daylight once again.
As far as we know, no one was left behind.
After touring the silver mine, we had time to explore the art gallery now housed in the Jesuit college. Pictures weren't allowed in the gallery, but that's just one more reason for you to visit for yourself. After the gallery, our final stop was inside Saint Barbara's Church. This late Gothic church features lots of columns, lots of stained glass, and lots of gold.
The church also features a statute of a miner, which make sense given that Saint Barbara was the patron saint of miners.
