The Goths are out in Kutna Hora

Woke up bright and early so we could each run 8-miles and stay on our improvised training regime for November’s New York City Marathon. Running in these old cities is a real drag with all the cobbled stoned streets that cause havoc on your joints; but at least it beats running the streets of LBC. In case you were thinking we just leave Teah behind, we want to inform you that we take turns running (hence why Sam was all laced up by 6 am).

After cleaning up from our runs we grabbed a coffee and pastry before heading to the bus station for our day trip to Kutna Hora. We found out the hard way that there are no late morning buses on Sunday and that we only had thirty minutes to back track Prague to catch the last train of the day.

Teah’s first real train ride (opposed to all the metro lines we have taken), was a successful 57 minute journey through Czech Republic’s countryside. We met a couple friendly Americans who shared our passenger cabin and kept Teah quite entertained.

Once in Kutna Hora we made our way to the town’s main attraction… Sedlec Ossuary. The church, dating back to around 1400 was sold to a family in 1870 at which time a local woodcarver got quite creative with the 40,000+ deceased occupants of the centuries old crypt. The woodcarver took leisure in building pyramids constructed of stacked bones as well as sculpting a chandelier made with at least one bone from every part of the human body. Our other favorite piece of bone art was the code of arms that represented the church owner’s family. 

After leaving the somewhat morbid house of the Lord, we took off for Kutna Hora’s city center to grab a bite to eat and visit the other attractions. We found a great Italian eatery with a raised seating deck in the town’s central plaza and ordered a deliciously light pesto pasta. 

We resolved Teah’s luncheon “blow-out” episode and then took a stroll over to the towns Gothic Cathedral of Saint Barbara. Along the way we passed the Church of Saint James (1330’s) that is architecturally a melding of late Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles.

As we rounded the bend from St. James, you could see St. Barbara Cathedral in the distance commanding an overpowering presence in relation to the surrounding landscape and adjacent structures. Welcoming visitors from the south is a magnificent paseo along the hillside that is adorned with life-size statues. The view from this approach to the Cathedral is stunning as visitors have a great perspective back toward Saint James’ 270-foot clock tower and the many trees that create a beautiful green canopy over the town.

The wealth in Kutna Hora has historically been based entirely on their silver mines, making it appropriate that they named their most structurally impressive masterpiece after Saint Barbara, the patron saint to miners. Construction of the cathedral began in 1388 and over the proceeding centuries has endured numerous additions. Of striking appearance is the tent like roof with three towering spires that soar into the heavens above. The great detail put into the cathedral can be seen when peering at the cornice and the many gargoyles that project out in a striking manner. 

We wrapped our evening up with a train ride back to Prague, a little shopping for the girls to replace the winter clothes brought in preparation for Argentina, and then grabbed a delicious bite to eat at a Czech vegetarian fusion sorta restaurant. Tomorrow we will be heading west to our next stop in Karlovy Vary.