Today we visited Kutna Hora, a city which contained one of the largest silver mines in Europe in the 14th and 15th century. The mine was the deepest in Europe at the time and the riches it produced made the town the second most important city in the Bohemian Kingdom. We walked around the quaint town with Misha as she showed us several of its beautiful buildings. The most impressive was the St. Barbara Cathedral. I think it was more impressive than any of the cathedrals we saw in Prague. Just as in Prague it took several hundred years to complete due to how the silver mines were doing at the time. This cathedral reminded me a great deal of Norte Dame in Paris with its many gargoyles and flying buttresses.

Of course, being the ones to never miss an opportunity, Stevie and I decided to take a tour of the silver mines. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of this as they told us to leave our bags behind because the spaces were small. Do we have problems with claustrophobia they asked? No we bravely said as they handed us our miner's hat and lantern and led us down the 167 steps to the bottom of the mine. I was already sweating thanks to the fact that I sweat at the drop of a hat and the fact that I had on that attractive miners hat on! We wound our way through the mine and we learned something important....although back then our height may not have been a problem, it would have been a major tight squeeze unless we visited the local Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers. The tour was interesting and it makes me more appreciative of my silver jewelry.

Finally Misha took us to Kunta Hora's Bone Church. Next to the church, during the many plagues, the victims were buried. Inside the church we found the bones of over 40,000 plague victims decorating the ossuary. It was originally decorated by a blind monk, but was later renovated by its "new owners" in the 1700s to its current conditions. It is supposed to represent the transientness of human life. It was morbidly interesting and my first thought was that this was a place many of my teenagers would perk right up in during a tour. Stevie though it would be an interesting place to teach her kiddos symmetry and patterns...skull, bone, bone, bone, skull. Very interesting and just makes me wonder who exactly came up with the thought  hey...the cemetery is getting crowded...let's use the bones for decoration...and say it shows how life constantly moves. 

 

Here is the coat of arms of the family who owned the church and redid the decorations.

Notice the raven eating the human head....real nice.

 

 

Do you like this chandelier?

 

 

 We ended our last night with dinner in our little part of Prague and had the biggest shish kabob I had ever seen followed by some yummy crêpes and coffee courtesy of our hotel. They sure have spoiled us and we will be sad to leave tomorrow on our train to Krakow.