Day 2:
On the second day, we traveled to Kutna Hora, a small city about an hour's train ride outside of Prague. Kutna Hora was famous for its silver mines and thus housed the mint, becoming the financial capital of Bohemia. Now that the silver's dried up, it is a popular tourist spot and is home to the Philip Morris cigarette factory.
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| Happy siblings |
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| Jubilee Synagogue on the way to the train station |
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| Arrival at Kutna Hora |
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| Monastery |
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| Unfortunate logo for Czech sausages |
We first went to the Ossuary, which used to be a cemetery. At some point it got so full that they dug up all the dead people and had an old, blind monk arrange them into 6 pyramids inside the church. Years later, an artist used 2 of the pyramids to decorate the church. In my opinion, it's a bit disrespectful to the dead, but it looks interesting.
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| The Ossuary from the outside |
Lots of bone pictures ahead!!!
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| At the entrance |
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| Vase? |
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| One of the pyramids |
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| Who wouldn't want a skeleton chandelier in their church? |
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| The crest of the family that owned the place and commissioned the creepy decor |
St. Barbara's cathedral was the second destination. It was built by the rich citizens of Kutna Hora as a display of autonomy. Planned to be twice as long as it is, funding for the church dried up with the silver supply.
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| St. Barbara's |
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| Flying buttresses |
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| Crooked church possibly due to silver mines underneath |
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| Street fair |
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| St. Barb's altar |
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| Star ceiling with crests of families that funded the church |
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| Ceiling and organ |
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| Beautiful windows |
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| Miner. They would stay in the mines for 6 days, come up Saturday evening to drink away their wages, and go to church on Sunday to pray that they would survive another week before heading back down into the mines. |
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| View from the balcony |
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| Manly Lukas |
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| House of a guy who illegally mined silver in his basement |
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| Date on a well. The second numeral is a 4, or half an 8. |
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| Plague column to keep away the pestilence |
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| St. Barb's from across the way |
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| I like doors |
That evening, we went on a beer tour. 4 different bars, 4 different beers. 'Twas quite delicious.
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| Numero uno |
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| The second bar, home of Pilsner Urquell, the original Pilsner |
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| Yum |
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| Interesting decor |
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| Last bar, Propaganda Vodka Bar, walls covered with Communist propaganda |
Only slightly intoxicated, we wandered back to the hostel.
Awesome some really cool (bones for chandelier) and funny pictures. How'd you get Lukas into the communist propaganda theme bar? Must have been the adult refreshments. I'm sure the propaganda was creepy.
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