In Kutná Hora, you’ll get your fix for the macabre

By Dian Hasan | September 6, 2009

If you are drawn to unusual experiences during your travels, ones that border macabre. And catacombs, mausoleums, haunted castles and cemeteries, give you excitement instead of goose-bumps, then this gothic church – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic is for you.

Behind the rather unimposing Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec lies what is best described as a cross between a Museum Art Gallery of exquisite work, and its in-house lunatic artist with a penchant for human bones!





Firstly, a brief geographic lesson: The picturesque medieval town of Kutná Hora, 60km east of Prague, is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The sources of Kutná Hora’s wealth is the silver mines that were exploited intensively between 14th and 15th centuries. At the time the town rivaled Prague and even London for its importance and commerce. The discovery of silver ore here in the 14th century led to the creation of the Royal Mint and the town became the political, cultural and economic centre of Bohemia.



Kutná Hora’s most interesting sights include the very gothic Cathedral of St. Barbara, the Patron Saint of miners, the nearby Hrádek building which has a direct relationship with the town’s mining past.

Cathedral of Assumption of Virgin Mary in Sedlec, is where you’ll find the Ossuary (a container for holding the bones of the dead), which contains the most bizarre sights, decorations made of human skeletons. It is estimated that anywhere between 40,000 to 70,000 human skeletons were to decorate the chapel.

As legend has it, in the 13th century the Abbot of the church was sent to the Holy Land. And when he came back, he brought with him a jar of soil from Golgotha and sprinkled it over the abbey cemetery, making it a very desirable ground for burial. during the black plague of the 14th century and later during the Hussite war, thousands of people were buried in the cemetery.



At the beginning of the 15th century, when a Gothic church was built in the center of the cemetery, thousands of skeletons were unearthed during the construction.



In 1870, František Rint, a woodcarver was commissioned to put the bones into order… and – as they say – the rest is history. One very creative carpenter indeed! Thank heavens Rint wasn’t associated with Geppetto, who was skilled in bringing wooden puppets to life!

