Day Trip to Kutna Hora

Day Trip to Kutna Hora 

Saturday began bright and early with a 9am departure to the nearby small town of Kutna Hora! After about an hour bus ride, we arrived to a crisp and cool morning that provided our first look at small town Czech life.

Our first stop was inside the Sedlec Ossuary chapel, which is known as the Bone Church. We learned from our local tour guide that the cemetery outside of the church needed to be expanded and that some bones were dug up and put in the basement. Eventually, artist Frantisek Rint was appointed to put the bones in order and he came up with the display. 

The result is both impressive and slightly creepy. Photos are not allowed inside due to the sacred nature of the chapel, so I have included a couple of photos that can be accessed online.

Next up were visits to the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady and St John the Baptist, a former Cistercian monastery, and the beautiful St. Barbara's cathedral. St. Barbara's cathedral's construction spams from 1388 to 1905! St. Barbara is the patron saint of minors and inside, many references to the mining history of the town can be seen. 

We even learned that the town's name itself is a reference to mining! Kutna (mining) and Hora (hill). After admiring the historical sites of the city, it was time for a yummy local lunch.

We ended the day with a classic Kutna Hora experience - mining for silver! The tour guides began with an explanation of the history of mining in the town during the 13th and 14th centuries! Under the city runs a labyrinth of 36 square miles of mines. Today, most of them are flooded and unusable. The mines range in depth to up to 400-600 meters underground. 

For our tour, we had to get suited up with white robes and helmets with lights for our descent just 30 meters underground. We were underground for about 40 minutes and the whole group persevered through the uncomfortable feeling of being in tight spaces! One of the coolest moments was when the group was asked to turn off all of our lights and we experienced what it was really like to be in the pitch black - so dark we could not see our own hand in front of our face. 

Coming out of the mines on the other side was a big relief that held a beautiful sight - St. Barbara's cathedral! We really felt like we were in a fairytale as in the background there was medieval music playing from a crowd below celebrating at an annual medieval festival. 

We are already looking forward to the adventures of week 2!