Not all holidays require a huge expenditure or long period of time: I'm a big fan of the common day trip or weekend getaway. Recently, I visited a few Czech towns that I will be writing about over the next few weeks. The first of these was Kutna Hora, a pretty little town about an hour's train ride from Prague. Kutna Hora literally translates to 'mining hill' - this town was an important European silver mining centre during the Middle Ages.
There are three main reasons to visit Kutna Hora, besides of course circling around the pretty but unmemorable little streets of the city centre. The first reason is the silver mine. If you think visiting a silver mine means just walking on down some steps and taking a look around, you're wrong: at Kutna Hora, you're first dressed up as the ghost of miners past, paraded through the streets of town in a group of 25, dressed in lab coat-like cloaks and glossy hard hats, much to the amusement of confused tourists. But this is all part of the appeal. You are then led down a long set of stairs leading deep into the ground, where you are guided through the dark, narrow tunnels, imagining what it would have been like to work in these mines in the 13th century. It is certainly an offbeat and unquestionably memorable experience.
For the hungry --
On your return to the surface, a stop for livanecky (little Czech pancakes) at cafe Luver just across the street is certainly not unwarranted. After all, all that bending over and squeezing through tiny archways must count as a workout.
On your return to the surface, a stop for livanecky (little Czech pancakes) at cafe Luver just across the street is certainly not unwarranted. After all, all that bending over and squeezing through tiny archways must count as a workout.
The two other major attractions of Kutna Hora are both beautiful and atmospheric churches - but they could not be more different from one another. The first is the Church of St. Barbora, which stands grandly on top of the hill that is the historic centre of Kutna Hora. St. Barbora was patron saint of miners, and the Gothic church stands as a reminder of the town's history and wealth when the mines were operational. For a few crowns extra, you can climb the winding staircase up to the interior balcony of the church. This is definitely worth it, and provides a fascinating and unique perspective: it is especially interesting to look up close at the angels adorning the top of the organ, which stands grandly one flight of stairs lower.
Last, but absolutely not least, the most intriguing monument at Kutna Hora is the Sedlec Ossuary. For the uninitiated, an ossuary is basically a place where the bones of the dead are stored. Here, a 19th century woodcarver named Frantisek Rint took an, ahem, creative approach to storage solutions for the bones of tens of thousands of people who had been buried in the overflowing churchyard cemetery during the middle ages. Frantisek carefully arranged the skeletal remains of between 40 000 and 70 000 people into ornamental altars, garlands, coats of arms, and the centrepiece of the church, a bone chandelier containing at least one of every bone found in the human body. Even his signature was created using bones, and attached to an interior wall. It's a macabre and somewhat grotesque sight, but is also exquisite, unique, and certainly unforgettable.