Kutna Hora - Prague Travel Guide

Kutná Hora is a gorgeous little town that was once the second-most important place in the CR. Most visitors come here to appreciate the history and architecture, which is truly unique. Kutna Hora is listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO. Be sure to visit the old silver mint, and just walk around the town, maybe stopping into one of the excellent cukarnas for some sweets and hot cocoa.

The early history of Kutna Hora revolves around the silver mines that made the city one of the richest and most important in medieval Bohemia during the 14th and 15th centuries. The first evidence of mining in the area goes back to the 10th century, but it was the discovery of major silver deposits in the 13th century that changed the future of the little village 70 km from Prague.

The silver mines in the area became so rich that, at the very beginning of the 14th century, Czech King Vaclav II bestowed upon Kutna Hora the privileges of a royal town and instituted a currency reform, closing all other mints in the country. With the aid of Italian craftsmen, he founded a royal mint in Kutna Hora that produced the Prague groschen, a coin that used throughout central Europe into the 19th century. He also began construction on a palace here, though it was later used as a royal mint. Its name, Italian Court, reflects the influence of the minters from Florence. (You can tour this place: it's Vlassky Dvur=Italian Court.)

The town's mines also attracted a great number of German-speaking immigrants, who brought advanced mining methods and became the town's largest ethnic group.

In the 13th and 14th centuries, Kutna Hora became the financial center for the Czech kingdom and its second most important city after Prague. At the end of the 14th century, it had a population equal to London's. Much of the town's wealth went towards the development of Prague, but some also went to the construction of a number of impressive buildings in Kutna Hora itself. The oldest is the church of St. James (Sv. Jakub), though it pales artisitically in comparison to the Cathedral of St. Barbara, one of the grandest cathedrals in Central Europe. The church dedicated to St. Barbara, patron of miners, was probably begun in 1380 and the chapel and choir were completed in 1420. The town also features a number of other churches, a former Jesuit College, an Ursuline Convent and a Cistercian monastery. (Note: all of these are quite beautiful.)

Another landmark, and a very popular and somewhat more unusual one, is the Kostnice (ossuary) in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutna Hora. See my separate entry on this, above.

Unfortunately for the town, the silver mines began to run out in the 16th century, and the last groschen was minted there in 1549. By the 17th century the production of silver in the town had reached such lows that pillaging Swedes were bought off with beer, not silver. The fortunes of the town continued to decline, until in 1727 the mint was finally closed completely.

Kutna Hora, Prague

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Kutna Hora, Prague

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