Kutna Hora

A two hour train ride east of Prague leads to a medieval city dating back to 1142, Kutna Hora the location for the Sedlec Ossuary or the Bone Church.  We arrived at the central train station in Prague, dropped off backpacks at the luggage storage and bought the train tickets for the same day (trains leave every hour with an option for a direct route or one with a transfer).

The day trip wouldn't be complete without visiting both Kutna Hora & the suburb Sedlec, which has the Bone Chapel & Saint James Cathedral.  The buses that service Kutna Hora, Sedlec and the train station are infrequent.  To maximize a day trip, in my opinion it is best to take the regional train after arriving at the Kutna Hora station.  The regional train stops at the town center, from there we walked around the whole town visiting  the main square, the black plague column, stone fountain, the Jesuit College, the silver museum and tiny streets that wind through the little town.  We made our way from Kutna Hora center and walked all the way back to the Sedlec ossuary, it's a nice, long walk and maps are available at the tourist booth in the train station.

Sedlec Ossuary or Bone Church started some time in the 1200 when the King of Bohemia sent some religious person to Jerusalem and brought back with him some soil from Golgotha. Because of this said holy soil, lots of medieval people wanted to be buried at the cemetery in Sedlec.  A church was built on the cemetery which naturally became famous for being super holy not just in Bohemia but also throughout Central Europe,  the ossuary was built for all the bones that were from abolished graves. About 40,000 to 70,000 human bones later, and the handiwork of a woodcarver completely renovated the basement of bones into something artistically eerie.  Piles and piles of bones in every corner, skulls and femurs create a coat of arms and chandelier with angels sitting atop.  Displaying the human bones in this way supposedly suggests that in the end, when we are all the same.

All in all it was creepy and cold in that basement with ex-humans.