Explore Kutna Hora

Why visit Kutna Hora

Kutná Hora rivalled Prague itself during the 14th and 15th centuries, when the silver mines under its streets produced about a third of all the silver in Europe and minted the Prague Groschen, the gold standard of the Holy Roman Empire's economy. That sudden wealth funded one of Bohemia's finest Gothic cathedrals — the cathedral of St Barbara (patron saint of miners), with its triple-tent roof, three tiers of flying buttresses, and frescoes featuring miners at work, started in 1388 and unfinished until 1905. The 1.5 km Italian Court (Vlasský dvůr) housed the mint and royal residence; the Hrádek castle now contains the Czech Silver Museum, where you can put on a white miner's smock and helmet and descend into a real medieval mine shaft. The town's most famous — and macabre — sight sits just outside the centre at Sedlec: the chapel of All Saints, ossuary, contains the artistically arranged bones of approximately 40,000 people, formed by woodcarver František Rint in 1870 into chandeliers, garlands, a coat of arms, and a bone signature. An easy hour-long train ride from Prague.