Kutna Hora - Wednesday 20th September
Yesterday we went to Kutna Hora, a town about an hour from Prague. It's heritage listed by UNESCO, and quite beautiful.
Interesting experience getting to Republic Square. Petra gave us instructions on which trains to catch and what station to change trains at. Simple!!!! Hopped on the first train, no worries, got off at the ritht station, walked over to the next platform to get the next train, again, no worries. Got off the train, up the mile-long escalator, isn't that St Ludmillas Church? Can't be! Yes, it is! We were back at the station we'd left from!!!!!! Let's get a taxi. Where's the taxi rank?? Walked miles, didn't even see a taxi, getting close to departure time for the tour, and we don't know where we're going!!! Found a 'Fair Fare' taxi stand, hailed a cab, made it to the Square with a couple of minutes to spare. Great tour. Here are the photos.
These are from the Sedlec Ossuary, a chapel adorned with skeletons of approximately 40,000-70,000 humans, many of whom died from the plague. In 1870, a local woodcarver was given the task of decorating the chapel with the bones, and this is the result.
Countryside between Prague and Kutna Hora.
More of the bones!!
Escalators in the railway station.
This is Saint Barbara's Church, one of the most famous Gothic churches in central Europe. St Barbara is the patron saint of miners (Kutna Hora was a big silver mining town in ancient times).
The altars, frescoes, windows, pulpit, choir stalls, are all from medieval times, and reflect the wealth of the town. You can see from the photos, the wealth of the place, the ostentaciousness (id there such a word?) of the altars, side chapels, and the choir stalls are from the 1500's.
The other place we visited was the Italian Castle. This was actually the town mint, where they hand made the silver coins used as currency. It was called the Italian Castle because no one in the country knew how to mint coins, so they brought in minters from Italy. There is a statue of a miner in St Barbara's Church - see the photo above.
These are photos from around Kutna Hora.
Got to go now - yahtzee awaits!!!!! More later.
Interesting experience getting to Republic Square. Petra gave us instructions on which trains to catch and what station to change trains at. Simple!!!! Hopped on the first train, no worries, got off at the ritht station, walked over to the next platform to get the next train, again, no worries. Got off the train, up the mile-long escalator, isn't that St Ludmillas Church? Can't be! Yes, it is! We were back at the station we'd left from!!!!!! Let's get a taxi. Where's the taxi rank?? Walked miles, didn't even see a taxi, getting close to departure time for the tour, and we don't know where we're going!!! Found a 'Fair Fare' taxi stand, hailed a cab, made it to the Square with a couple of minutes to spare. Great tour. Here are the photos.
The altars, frescoes, windows, pulpit, choir stalls, are all from medieval times, and reflect the wealth of the town. You can see from the photos, the wealth of the place, the ostentaciousness (id there such a word?) of the altars, side chapels, and the choir stalls are from the 1500's.
These are photos from around Kutna Hora.
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| This is a video of how they made the coins |
Got to go now - yahtzee awaits!!!!! More later.
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