Friday 12th September 2008 – Kutna Hora, Czech Republic

Time to move on again and today we were heading south to Kutna Hora. We travelled through gently undulating countryside with fields and patches of forest. We were on main roads, although they weren't busy, and we past villages laying off to both sides of the road identified by church towers and spires of many different designs.
We had chosen a ACSI listed campsite outside of the town but arrived in it to find another site signposted. We followed the signs to the site that was within the town and decided that it would be much more convenient. After a quick lunch we walked into the town to investigate.
Kutna Hora is a very pretty town with lots of interesting architecture. Even on our walk into the centre we passed many historic buildings with wonderfully ornate plasterwork, many of which were in need of restoration, some of which are obviously about to be restored. In the centre all of the buildings had been tastefully restored and were very attractive. We followed a town trail from a leaflet supplied by the campsite and managed to see all of the sites except the silver museum and mine – we had seen the mine in Banska Stiavnica, Slovakia and this one was unlikely to be as interesting.
The highlight of the tour was the huge St. Barbara's cathedral. Building work on this Goltic masterpiece was started in 1388 but it took over 500 years to complete it. The town owes its wealth to silver mining and the presence of the mint, producing silver Prague Groschen. Both miners and minting are represented in statues and paintings within the church and St. Barbara is the patron saint of miners. The wall paintings and painted glass (rather than stained glass) were beautiful and I was particularly impressed by the totally 'over the top' baroque organ with statues of podgy angels playing musical instruments on the top.
Photos: Beautiful house in Kutna Hora but on close inspection it is in serious need of restoration; The front elevation of St. Barbara's Cathedral – the scaffolding is for renovation, they aren't still building it!; A statue of a miner in the cathedral; The Baroque organ – I especially like the drum-playing angel on the right.