Kutná Hora
Kutná Hora locates app. 70 km east from Prague and you
can find city also from the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List.
By train it takes only one hour to get there. Kutná Hora
has become famous because of silver mining. The town was founded
in the late of 13th century and soon mine provided one third of
European production of silver. Today you can go to see the mine
and visit a museum and exhibitions of mining.
Cathedral of St. Barbora
There are actually two interesting buildings in Kutná
Hora. First one is Cathedral of St. Barbora that was founded in
1388. Building took many centuries and construction was finally
completed in the beginning of 20th century. The Church is one
of the most beautiful gothic cathedrals in Europe and you can
recognize it easily from the form of the roof that reminds three
tents. Inside of church are for example beautiful organ and many
wonderful stained glasses. St. Barbora is a patron saint of miners.
In church you can find paintings about mining and statue of miner
in working clothes. They take an entrance fee to get to the church.
No wonder that most of the Czechs are atheistic. And it is also
forbidden to take photographs, so I wonder in which place do they
have all the celebrations.
Bone Chapel
The All Saints Cemetery Church in Sedlec is much more interesting
place. In year 1278 king Otakar II send Henry, who was abbot of
the Sedlec monastery, to Jerusalem. When Henry came back from
the Holy Land he brought a handful of earth from the Golgata and
scattered it all over the cemetery. The Cemetery was now part
of the Holy Land and many people wanted to get their last place
to rest from there. During the plague epidemic thousands of people
were buried in the cemetery and after hundred years during Hussite
wars number of graves increased. The Chapel itself was founded
late of 14th century. The decoration of chapel is interesting
– it is made of human bones.
Half-blinded monk made first bone pyramids at 1511. Later on Schwarzenbergs
family got the property of the monastery for themselves and they
gave for wood carver Frantisek Rint a task to make new decorations.
A huge chandelier in the middle of the chapel contains all bones
of human body. Under that is entrance to crypt. In the left side
is coat-of-arms of the Schwarzenbergs made also from bones. More
objects are for example big bone chalice and bone crosses.
The interior of church is indescribable. It is so absurd that
you can’t even hate it. It is more like a museum or something
else than a church. But it is absolutely a place worth to visit.
Even though this place is not a necropolis it is just the kind
of places that you can imagine necromancers to work like they
do in fantasy world.
More pictures from
Kutná Hora
|
