A day in Kutná Hora, part 2

After our lunch, we went off in search of the St Barbara Cathedral - nothing too difficult, as it is quite large, and perched on the side of a great hill. On our way up the hill, we passed the Church of St Jacob (Kostel Sv. Jakuba):


St Jacob's as seen looking back from St Barbara's
As we approached the cathedral, we passed alongside the Jesuit College (Jesuitská Kolej), a massive building flanked on one side by a walkway overlooked by statues.


St Barbara's Cathedral (Chrám Sv. Barbory) is very impressive. Not only is it quite large, but it also has some extant 15th century wall paintings left inside - a lasting reminder of what put the town on the medieval map: the silver trade. Below you can see one area of the painting, where an angel watches over a local moneyer.




St Barbara's at night:

A day in Kutná Hora, part 1

Kutná Hora is a small city to the east of Prague, but of great cultural significance for the entire country. An important source of silver in the middle ages (since around the 10th century), and the site of a Cistercian monestary, the area is now an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

After a brisk walk from the train station and through the stale snow leftover from the generally frigid January weather, we came first to the Chrám Nanebevzetí Panny Marie (Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady). It was built between 1280 and 1320 by the Cistercians, and was plundered by the Hussites (Protestant followers of Jan Hus) in 1421 and was badly burned (although it's unclear as to whether or not the Hussites were responsible for the fire, it's more than likely given their military actions in other parts of the country, particularly Prague). It was restored in the early 18th century, allegedly by Czech/Italian architect Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel.


The Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady
Not far from this cathedral was the Morový Sloup - the Plague Column, a memorial for the countless victims of the Bubonic Plague that decimated Europe in the 14th century.


The Plague Column
The Plague Column is appropriately situated just outside the walls of a cemetary. Within these walls amongst the headstones is a small Gothic chapel, which houses the famous ossuary (Kostnice), a intriguingly morbid display of human remains. In 1870, a woodcarver named František Rint was commissioned to create the monument from the exhumed skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people - victims both of the Plague and of the Hussite Wars. In the pictures below you can see the coat of arms of the Schwarzenberg family (who employed Rint for the task) and a monstrance, among other things:


The Sedlec Ossuary
Of course seeing all those bones made me powerful hungry, so we went to the nearby pub U Zlatého Lva ("At the Golden Lion") for lunch. If you ever happen upon the Golden Lion, I highly recommend the potato soup and a pint of the local beer, called Dačický.

To be continued...

The blurriest fireworks picture ever

Šťastný nový rok!

New Year's Eve, known here as Silvestr (31 Dec is the name day for "Silvestr"), was an awesome surprise.

Fireworks which, let's face it, have been shot off for no apparent reason since we moved in during summer, started not long after sundown. There were a few ho-hum displays in a few different locations in the city, but they were pretty short and nothing special. A while later, the Asian corner store beneath our window started shooting fireworks from the front of their store. This was impressive enough, as the explosions were only slightly higher than our 8th floor (9th by American counting) balcony. And, from the looks of it, they were determined to empty out all the overstock from their store. At one point, to our pyromaniacal glee, one of their mortars tipped over and launched rockets all over the street, into a tree, and under the arcaded walkway of the building. The few cars still on the road braked nervously and sped past the square when they thought it was safe.

After that show had ended, and we had caught our breath from laughing and cheering, we all agreed that nothing could ever top that..

..and then midnight happened. It was like a warzone, except far more colourful. From our balcony, which offers about a 190° panoramic view, there wasn't a single area on the horizon that wasn't showered in sparkling light. This video doesn't really do it justice:



And, of course, people were still launching their own from the square beneath us. (Listen for Dan's additional sound effects):