{"id":716,"date":"2023-10-11T19:22:57","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T19:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/prague2023\/?p=716"},"modified":"2023-10-11T19:28:40","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T19:28:40","slug":"overnight-trip-to-kutna-hora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/prague2023\/2023\/10\/11\/overnight-trip-to-kutna-hora\/","title":{"rendered":"Overnight Trip to Kutn\u00e1 Hora"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday we got up early and took the train to Kutn\u00e1 Hora, a small city an hour east of Prague. We traveled to Kutn\u00e1 Hora to see the Sedlec Ossuary, an underground chapel decorated with human skeletons. We also visited St. Barbara’s Cathedral, a magnificent Gothic cathedral with medieval frescoes and flying buttresses, as well as the GASK Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here we are in the morning waiting for the tram to the Praha hlavn\u00ed n\u00e1dra\u017e\u00ed (Prague Main Railway Station), where we caught the train to Kutn\u00e1 Hora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sleep at your own risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here we are arriving in Kutn\u00e1 Hora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Walking through the underpass, we saw words from the first verse of the Czech national anthem on the wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In English:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Where my home is, where my home is,
Water roars across the meadows,
Pinewoods rustle among rocks,
The orchard is glorious with spring blossom,
Paradise on earth it is to see.
And this is that beautiful land,
The Czech land, my home,
The Czech land, my home!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where my toothbrush is, where my toothbrush is . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From the train station we walked to the Sedlec Ossuary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here we are arriving at the plague tower outside the ossuary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And here is the entrance to the ossuary cemetery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Sedlec Ossuary is a sacred site and pictures are not allowed inside the chapel. Here is short summary of the building and its contents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sedlec Ossuary is an underground chapel of All Saints Cemetery. The chapel was a part of the oldest Cistercian monastery in Bohemia founded in 1142. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Sedlec Ossuary website:<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“According to legend, one of the local abbots was sent by the Czech king to Jerusalem around the year 1278. The abbot brought a handful of soil from Golgotha and scattered it over the Sedlec cemetery. The soil from the Holy Land was used for consecrating and healing. Also, people from Europe desired to be buried in Sedlec.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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During the plagues of the 14th Century, 30,000 human bodies were buried in the All Saints cemetery surrounding the chapel. During the Hussite wars, another 10,000 bodies were buried here. At the end of the 15th Century, the cemetery was reduced and bones from the graved were moved inside the underground chapel. According to legend, a half-blind monk arranged the bones and skulls into pyramids inside the chapel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Ossuary guide:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The geometric arrangement in the shape of a pyramid is not accidental — the pyramid is meant to be a reminder of the divine mountain, symbolizing the vertical axis that connects heaven and earth and that brings earthly reality under the dominion of heavenly order.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spent 3 hours at the Sedlec Ossuary drawing and writing. Afterward, we took the bus to Kutn\u00e1 Hora and checked into our hotel, explored the city, had dinner, and settled in for the night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The next morning, we made our way to St. Barbara’s cathedral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From the destinace.kutnahora.cz<\/a> website:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The 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\u00a0Kutn\u00e1 Hora. The splendor of this structure is tangible testament to the fame and riches of the silver\u00a0Kutn\u00e1 Hora\u00a0as well as of the deep devotion of its creators.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“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\u2018s blossoming as well as to the construction of the cathedral, which they dedicated to their holy protectress.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spent a couple of hours drawing and writing inside the church. How else could we begin than by looking up at the “stellar vault,” which is supported by intertwined curved ribs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here is the chancel, the oldest part of the cathedral. The central theme of the main altar is the Last Supper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A typical feature of Gothic cathedrals is the apse chapels around the chancel. Here Nate is taking a photo of St. Blaise’s chapel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the time that we were in the church, the morning light was streaming through the frescoes on the western wall. The frescoes depict scenes from the Passion of Christ as well as scenes from the industry of silver mining that helped build the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Drawing and writing in the pews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And from above. . . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our last stop in Kutn\u00e1 Hora was the GASK Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, which resides in the building of a former Jesuit college. Here Paul and Dinah are talking about the current exhibitions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And here Paul is pointing out a quote by Jean Arp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We spent the rest of the afternoon sketching and writing in the galleries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then, it was time to catch the bus back to the Kutn\u00e1 Hora train station. Then home to Prague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yesterday we got up early and took the train to Kutn\u00e1 Hora, a small city an hour east of Prague. We traveled to Kutn\u00e1 Hora to see the Sedlec Ossuary, an underground chapel decorated with human skeletons. We also visited St. Barbara’s Cathedral, a magnificent Gothic cathedral with medieval frescoes and flying buttresses, as well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/prague2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/prague2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/prague2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/prague2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/prague2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/prague2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":785,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/prague2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716\/revisions\/785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/prague2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/prague2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/prague2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/prague2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}