7 hours Kutná Hora & Bone Church Private Tour by car

Along with the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady and St John the Baptist in Sedlec, the Roman Catholic Cemetery Church of All Saints with the Ossuary is part of the former Cistercian monastery in Sedlec, founded in 1142. The cemetery church is a two-floor charnel-type building from the 14th century. According to legend, CLAY which was brought by the monks from Jerusalem was scattered at the Sedlec cemetery in 1278, thus making the cemetery the oldest “holy field“ in Central Europe and a sought-after burial ground. Over 30,000 were buried in Sedlec after the plague in 1318, with another 10,000 deceased finding their final resting place at the cemetery during the Hussite Wars. According to preserved sources, the Sedlec cemetery occupied an area of 35,000 m2. Most of the graves were abolished at the end of the 15th century. The EXHUMED SKELETAL REMAINS of approximately 40,000 deceased were stored in the church‘s lower chapel where, according to legend, a half-blind monk stacked them into large pyramids in 1511.

At the end of the 18th century, the reforms implemented by Joseph II led to the abolishment of the abbey, with the church caming into the possession of the Schwarzenberg family of Orlík, who had the original Baroque SKELETAL DECORATION, probably created according to the plans of the brilliant architect J. B. SANTINI Aichl, repaired and finished in 1870 by František Rint, their woodcarver and master builder. The cemetery church with the Ossuary is a unique cultural and historical monument and the SEDLEC CEMETERY is thus the aim of the travels of not only people whose loved ones are buried there, but also of thousands of visitors from all the countries of the world. The LEANING church is currently undergoing a demanding total reconstruction, part of which includes making the outdoor terraces accessible and implementing a new conceptual solution for visitor traffic, while preserving the original legacy of its unique MEMENTO MORI skeletal decorations associated with the hope for resurrection.

he Cathedral of St Barbara, a jewel of the Late Gothic period and one of the four cathedral-type buildings in Bohemia, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List together with the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady and St John the Baptist and the historical centre of Kutná Hora. The splendor of this structure is tangible testament to the fame and riches of the silver Kutná Hora as well as of the deep devotion of its creators. The cathedral is dedicated to Virgin Barbara, an early Christian martyr, invoked as a helper in need, an intercessor for a good death, and a patron of all who carry on a dangerous occupation, especially miners. And it was in fact miners who contributed the most to the medieval town‘s blossoming as well as to the construction of the cathedral, which they dedicated to their holy protectress.

The beginnings of the structure, which date back to the second half of the 14th century, are linked to Parler's famous building workshop. The activities of this workshop were supplemented by the work of many other ingenious artists and builders, including the famous Benedikt Ried, among others. He is the author of the so-called empora (an indoor gallery on the first floor of the cathedral), the design of the unmistakable tent roofs and, of course, the tracery vault over the cathedral’s main nave. The construction work had to be temporarily suspended in the mid-16th century when the silver ran out in Kutná Hora’s mines. The centuries that followed brought a wave of reconstruction work and replacement of the cathedral‘s fixtures, particularly in the Baroque style. The cathedral‘s present-day appearance dates back to the 19th and 20th centuries, when the church underwent an extensive regothisation and a total restoration.

The Cathedral of St Barbara is a diverse gallery of, in particular, rare Gothic frescoes and stone-cutting art, but all generations of artisans have left their mark here. The main nave is dominated by a Renaissance pulpit with baroque paneling. The learned and pious Jesuits equipped the cathedral with a number of Baroque altars, sculptures and paintings. Generous donors to the neo-Gothic renewal had stained glass installed in a large part of the windows at the start of the 20th century, on which the painter František Urban depicted a series of purely Christian motifs as well as the significant events of his time. In 2014, the latest artistic work: stained glass with a motif of St Agnes of Bohemia, which adorned the last clear window in the cathedral’s south nave, continued in this tradition.

This Early Baroque building was designed by Giovanni Domenico Orsi, an Italian architect born in Vienna, who was an important builder of Jesuit buildings. The experience he gained from building fortresses also manifested themselves in the very thorough construction of the college, including its ingenious ground and sewage water drainage system. Partially preserved plans show that he elected to use an E-shaped floor plan. The current F-shaped floor plan is the result of the fact that the original design was never implemented. Carlo Lurago continued with the building work after Orsi‘s death, with the college being fully completed in 1750. The architecture of the college is relatively austere, in compliance with Jesuit principles, with only the facade reminiscent of Early Baroque Italian palaces. Construction work proceeded slowly, with the Jesuits only moving into the college in 1678, at that time still largerly incomplete. They lived in a makeshift manner for nearly fifty years. An interesting feature is the roofed suspended corridor leading from the college to the Cathedral of St Barbara, built in the 1730s, which was removed, however, at the end of the 19th century.

The Church of St James is the oldest stone church in Kutná Hora, and was intended as the spiritual centre of the entire town since its very establishment. Its location and architectural concept also corresponds to this. The church is located in the very heart of the medieval town: the distance to all other churches is approximately the same, which is an expression of the sacral nature of this area. The tower of the Church of St James is thus visible from afar and serves as an important point of orientation for the wider area.

Construction of the church began in the 1330s and its most important donors were the coiners and minters from the neighboring Italian Court. The presbytery was vaulted and held its first church service as early as in 1356. The Sedlec Cistercian monastery had a major influence on the early part of the church‘s construction, both structurally and symbolically. This is also why the church was originally dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Construction work was completed in 1420; Parler's building workshop, at that time already working on the construction of the Cathedral of St. Barbara, participated in the later construction stages. The work of this workshop is particularly noticeable in the rich flamboyant tracery used in the large window on the west facade of the church. The original plan, involving the building of two towers, was abandoned during the course of construction, due to the serious problems with the subsoil, already known at that time, which would be unable to bear the load of a second church tower. But the north tower was built to a respectable height of 80 metres, and so the church simply began to be called the “Tall“ church.

The Italian Court used to be rightly known as the “jewel“ in the crown of Czech kings and its appeal and charm persist to this day. Italian Court is the former royal mint and royal palace, a national cultural monument of pan-European significant with a thousand-year history. The original fortified settlement from the late 13th century was converted into a central royal mint in 1300 by King Wenceslas II. The minting reform included the closure of small mints scattered around the entire Kingdom of Bohemia and the introduction of a new coin, the so-called Prague groschen. Production of this currency was concentrated near to the richest source of silver in the land – to the newly established mint in the Italian Court in Kutná Hora, which thus gained a privileged position in the entire kingdom. King Wenceslas IV, who took a liking to Kutná Hora and often stayed here, adapted the Italian Court to the needs of a royal residence - he had a royal palace added on, which included his private as well as state rooms, and the Chapel of St Wenceslas. The new royal residence became the venue of important historical events: the Decree of Kutná Hora was signed here in 1409, and in 1444, George of Poděbrady, this was the venue for the election of the future King of Bohemia, to the post of the supreme governor of the East Bohemian “landfried“, a military-political association, and in 1448 to the post of provincial administrator. The young Polish Prince Vladislav Jagiello was elected King of Bohemia here in 1471. Later, the Italian Court gradually began to lose its importance and it was not until the end of the 19th century that more extensive and costly reconstruction led by the architect Ludvík Lábler were implemented. The neo-Gothic reconstruction gave the Italian Court its present-day appearance and restored the royal residence‘s original nobility, lustre and grandeur.