Hello everyone, as we continued our journey through the Czech Republic, we also visited a rather unusual place. First we went to the Saint Barbara Church. This church is located in the town of Kutná Hora. It’s a very well-maintained and pleasant place. In fact this church is the second largest and most important of its kind in the Czech Republic. It features classic Gothic architecture. However, after fires,it was rebuilt and its roof was changed several times. One important point I should mention is that Gothic structures are not as gloomy as many of us might think. Actually Gothic style in its original form is not dark. Over time the stones darken and aren’t cleaned, giving them a special atmosphere. In reality, Gothic churches have many windows and are quite bright inside.
Fuel in the Czech Republic is very expensive , even more so than in Germany. When you search for anything car-related on Google, it only shows car dealerships. If you go to a parts shop, you’ll find brands like Toyota or Skoda. Even outside of settlements, there are no dashed lines, meaning no lanes. Encountering trucks and trailers often becomes difficult. Since there are generally no lanes here, you need to drive carefully to avoid hitting trees or poles by the side of the road. The roads are narrow, which discourages speeding. I guess this is somewhat of a design feature.
Later we visited another church called the Sedlec Ossuary. The interior decorations here are made from human bones. Here's the story: A prior brought back a piece of holy land and many people wanted to be buried in these grounds. As the cemetery grew to meet increasing demand, bones began piling up. Then, according to legend, a blind monk started doing something with these bones. Later a professional bone artisan was hired to decorate the interior of the church.
It’s open until 6 pm. There’s a ticket booth about 150 meters down to buy tickets. Actually you can purchase a single ticket for three churches: St. Barbara Cathedral, another Gothic church and the Sedlec Ossuary. In total it costs 220 Czech Korunas per person. This town is amazing. Walking around in such an atmosphere is delightful. There are tourists, but it’s not crowded. Especially sitting in the park next to St. Barbara Cathedral makes you never want to leave.
I noticed some skulls were very small. Although people were shorter during the Middle Ages, some bones seemed to belong to children or teenagers. They may have died from diseases like the plague or cholera.
In total there are about 30-50 thousand bones here. It’s hard to count these piles of bones exactly, but it seems there’s a family crest here. And there’s a Lego store and museum, so there are activities for kids too. However, an extra building slightly disrupts the architectural integrity.
Here stands the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary. With its many windows, it’s also known as the Temple of Light. But like the cathedral next to the Presidential Palace in Prague, this cathedral is surrounded by mismatched annex buildings. It cannot compare to St. Barbara Cathedral.
Another interesting thing I noticed along the way is that the curbs are integrated with rainwater channels. I don’t know how it is on other Czech village roads, but the roads here are perfect. Also, the city map is marked with numbered streets, making it ideal for walking.
After seeing so much architectural beauty over five days, we had to prepare to cross into Austria. We set off towards Vienna. Since Vienna lies in the flat part of the country, naturally there aren’t many tunnels. However, famous cities like Salzburg are located in the Alps and are full of constant tunnels. If you plan to travel by car, you’ll need to pay everywhere.
And Austria has beautiful scenic roads, but they all come with a fee. For instance, a 30 km winding road trip might cost you 25 Euros. But Austria is worth it. Later, we’ll take a different route and head to the mountainous region of Slovakia. We’re planning to spend a few days in Slovakia. As we headed towards Vienna, the navigator suggested going through Brno, but we preferred the winding roads passing by small towns. I’ll tell you about our Austrian adventures in another post. Thanks for reading.
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Hiya, @lauramica here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Your post has been manually curated by the @worldmappin team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!Quite fascinating and I had no idea such kind of church exists. Those are real bones, right?
Thanks for sharing...