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The Secrets of Kutná Hora

Where Silver Built Cathedrals and Death Became Art

In the 13th century, a monk found silver ore in a Bohemian hillside and the world changed. Within decades, Kutná Hora became the second wealthiest city in Bohemia, its mines producing one-third of Europe’s silver. Kings built their mint here. Gothic cathedrals rose on silver profits, and when the plague came, the bones of 40,000 dead were stacked into chandeliers. This is a UNESCO World Heritage town frozen between glory and decay.

10
Stops
~2h
Journey
10
Riddles

How to Play

  1. Tap a stop to read its story
  2. Solve the riddle — tap your answer
  3. The truth (+ hidden history) is revealed!
  4. Tap the 📍 address to navigate via Google Maps
Cistercian Beginnings
The Oldest Cathedral in Bohemia

A monastery founded in 1142 gave birth to the oldest cathedral-type building in Central Europe.

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Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady (Sedlec)
Gothic · 1290–1320
📍 Zámecká 127, 284 03 Kutná Hora
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📖 The Story
You stand before the oldest cathedral-type sacred building in Central Europe. The Cistercian monastery at Sedlec was founded in 1142, making it the first Cistercian house in Bohemia. The cathedral was built between 1290 and 1320 in a breathtaking thirty years. In 1421, Hussite Wars burned it to a roofless ruin. In 1700, architect Johann Blasius Santini-Aichel fused Baroque curves with the original Gothic arches, creating what scholars call “Baroque Gothic.” At 87 meters long, it remains the longest church in the Czech Republic.
🧩 Riddle
What unique architectural style did Santini-Aichel create when restoring this cathedral?
💡 Need a hint?
He merged two different centuries of architectural tradition into one.
🎉 The Answer
B. Baroque Gothic
The cathedral is 87 meters long—the longest church in the Czech Republic—and was built in just 30 years, making it one of the fastest major Gothic constructions in medieval Europe.
Memento Mori
A Chapel Dressed in 40,000 Bones

When plague and war filled the cemetery beyond capacity, death itself became decoration.

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Sedlec Ossuary (Bone Church)
Gothic · 14th–19th century
📍 Zámecká 279, 284 03 Kutná Hora
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📖 The Story
In 1278, Abbot Henry returned from the Holy Land carrying earth from Golgotha—the hill of Christ’s crucifixion—and scattered it across the monastery cemetery. The cemetery became one of the most desirable burial grounds in Europe. The Black Death of 1348 and the Hussite Wars swelled it to 40,000 burials. In 1870, woodcarver František Rint arranged the bones into art: a chandelier containing every bone in the human body, garlands of skulls, and the Schwarzenberg coat of arms rendered in femurs.
🧩 Riddle
Why did the Sedlec cemetery become so enormously popular across medieval Europe?
💡 Need a hint?
An abbot brought something back from a pilgrimage that made the soil sacred.
🎉 The Answer
C. Holy soil from Golgotha was scattered on the grounds
František Rint, the woodcarver who arranged the bones in 1870, signed his work—you can find his name spelled out in bones on the wall near the entrance. It’s the only known instance of an artist’s signature made entirely from human remains.
The Silver Boom
Where Europe’s Money Was Made

The royal mint that struck the Prague Groschen—the most trusted coin in medieval Central Europe.

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Italian Court (Vlašský dvűr)
Gothic · Late 13th century
📍 Havlíçkovo náměstí 552, 284 01 Kutná Hora
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📖 The Story
In 1300, King Wenceslas II centralized all Bohemian coin production here, hiring Italian experts from Florence to run the mint. The coin they struck—the Prague Groschen—became the most widely circulated coin in Central Europe for 250 years. Minters forged up to 2,000 coins per 12-hour shift. In 1409, the Decree of Kutná Hora was issued from these walls, changing Prague University’s voting structure and triggering the departure of German academics that helped spark the Hussite movement.
🧩 Riddle
How many coins were minters expected to produce per 12-hour shift at the Italian Court?
💡 Need a hint?
Think of a number in the thousands—the pace was relentless.
🎉 The Answer
C. 2,000 coins
The Decree of Kutná Hora, issued from the Italian Court in 1409, gave Czech masters three votes at Prague University versus one for each foreign nation. This triggered the exodus of German scholars, who went on to found the University of Leipzig.
Medieval Skyline
The Leaning Tower of Bohemia

The oldest stone church in Kutná Hora hides a geological secret beneath its foundations.

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Church of St. James (Kostel sv. Jakuba)
Gothic · 1330s
📍 Havlíçkovo náměstí, 284 01 Kutná Hora
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📖 The Story
The oldest stone church in Kutná Hora, standing since the 1330s. Its 86-meter tower dominates the skyline. But the miners who made the city rich also undermined it—literally. The extensive silver mine shafts beneath the old town caused the soil to shift, and the tower leans visibly. Stand across the square at the Italian Court and sight along the edge—it’s unmistakable. Inside, ribbed vaulting, late-Gothic wall paintings, and a Baroque organ that still fills the space during summer concerts.
🧩 Riddle
What caused the tower of the Church of St. James to lean?
💡 Need a hint?
The very industry that built the city also destabilized the ground beneath it.
🎉 The Answer
B. Subsidence from underground silver mine shafts
The silver mine tunnels beneath the old town extend to depths of over 500 meters—at one point the deepest mines in the world. The honeycomb of shafts is so extensive that subsidence still affects buildings in the historic center today.
Into the Depths
500 Meters Below the Streets

A medieval fortress turned museum lets you descend into the actual silver mines that built a kingdom.

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Czech Museum of Silver (Hrádek)
Gothic · 15th century
📍 Barborská 28, 284 01 Kutná Hora
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📖 The Story
The Hrádek—“the little castle”—houses the Czech Museum of Silver. The real experience is underground: you don a miner’s hard hat and white coat, descend narrow stone staircases, and squeeze through tunnels carved in the 15th century. At their peak, the mines produced roughly one-third of all silver in Europe, reaching depths over 500 meters. Miners worked 12-hour shifts by candlelight, with an average career lasting about 10 years before lung disease took hold.
🧩 Riddle
What fraction of Europe’s total silver production came from the mines of Kutná Hora at their peak?
💡 Need a hint?
It was a staggeringly large share for a single town.
🎉 The Answer
C. One third
The mine tour takes you 35 meters underground through authentic medieval shafts. You wear a miner’s hard hat and white coat, and some passages are so narrow you must turn sideways. It’s one of the most visceral museum experiences in Europe.
Gothic Engineering
A Fountain That Fed a City

A masterpiece of late-Gothic stonework that was also a feat of hydraulic engineering.

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Stone Fountain (Kamenná kašna)
Late Gothic · 1495
📍 Rejskovo náměstí, 284 01 Kutná Hora
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📖 The Story
In 1495, architect Matěj Rejsek—who also worked on St. Barbara’s and designed Prague’s Powder Tower—created this extraordinary fountain. It looks like a miniature Gothic cathedral, its twelve-sided body covered in tracery and pinnacles. But it was also functional: the terminal point of a wooden pipeline system bringing fresh water from springs outside town. The reservoir beneath held roughly 36,000 liters of clean drinking water.
🧩 Riddle
Who was the architect of the Stone Fountain—the same man behind Prague’s Powder Tower?
💡 Need a hint?
His surname is literally in the name of the square where the fountain stands.
🎉 The Answer
C. Matěj Rejsek
The fountain’s underground reservoir held roughly 36,000 liters of drinking water, fed by a wooden pipeline from springs outside the town. In the 15th century, Kutná Hora had a more sophisticated water supply than most European capitals.
Burgher Wealth
A Merchant’s Stone Showpiece

The richest facade in Bohemia—a merchant’s house that outshone palaces.

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Stone House (Kamenný dűm)
Late Gothic · 1489
📍 Václavské náměstí 183/26, 284 01 Kutná Hora
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📖 The Story
The finest example of late-Gothic civic architecture in the Czech Republic. Built around 1489, its facade is covered in carved stone ornamentation: vine scrolls, heraldic shields, grotesque figures, and biblical scenes. This was a private house, built by a wealthy merchant who wanted the world to know how much silver money he had. In medieval Kutná Hora, silver-rich burghers competed with nobility and clergy for prestige. The Stone House was the ultimate proof that a commoner could commission stonework as sophisticated as any royal building.
🧩 Riddle
What was the Stone House originally built as—not a church, not a palace, but what?
💡 Need a hint?
Think about who had the most silver money besides the king and the church.
🎉 The Answer
B. A private merchant’s house
The Stone House facade contains over 200 individual carved elements—from biblical scenes to grotesque faces to heraldic shields. It is considered the finest late-Gothic residential facade in all of Central Europe.
The Charnel House
A Chapel for the Mining Dead

A two-story ossuary chapel where the bones of miners were stored beneath the floor of worship.

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Corpus Christi Chapel
Gothic · 14th century
📍 Barborská, 284 01 Kutná Hora
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📖 The Story
Perched on the hillside, this two-story Gothic chapel served a grim dual purpose: the upper level was a place of worship; the lower level stored bones of dead miners and plague victims. A miner’s average career lasted roughly a decade before silicosis or injury ended it. The chapel was closed for centuries and only reopened in 2000 after restoration. The upper chapel retains original wall paintings, and the views from its terrace over the Vrchlice valley toward St. Barbara’s are among the finest in town.
🧩 Riddle
What dual function did the Corpus Christi Chapel serve?
💡 Need a hint?
Think about what happened above and below the main floor.
🎉 The Answer
B. Chapel above, ossuary below
The chapel was closed for centuries and only reopened to the public in 2000 after extensive restoration. Its terrace offers one of the finest panoramic views in Kutná Hora.
Counter-Reformation
The Jesuits’ Grand Entrance

A massive Baroque college that dominates the approach to St. Barbara’s—and reshaped the city’s identity.

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Jesuit College
Baroque · 1667–1750
📍 Barborská, 284 01 Kutná Hora
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📖 The Story
The Jesuits arrived in 1626 to reclaim Bohemia for Catholicism. Between 1667 and 1750, they built this enormous Baroque complex—one of the largest outside Prague. The terrace is lined with Baroque statues of saints, modeled after Prague’s Charles Bridge. After the order was dissolved in 1773, the building served as barracks and a hospital. Today it houses GASK—the Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region—where cutting-edge contemporary art fills rooms built for 17th-century theology.
🧩 Riddle
What cultural institution now occupies the former Jesuit College?
💡 Need a hint?
The building’s current use involves art, not prayer.
🎉 The Answer
B. GASK – Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region
The terrace features Baroque saint statues modeled after the famous statues on Prague’s Charles Bridge. Walking this terrace toward St. Barbara’s at sunset is one of the most cinematic experiences in the Czech Republic.
The Crown Jewel
A Cathedral Built by Miners, Not Kings

Five centuries in the making, financed by silver miners who wanted a church to rival Prague’s.

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Cathedral of St. Barbara
Gothic · 1388–1905
📍 Barborská 685, 284 01 Kutná Hora
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📖 The Story
Construction began in 1388, funded not by a king or bishop but by the silver miners and burghers themselves, who wanted a church to rival St. Vitus in Prague. The original design by Johann of Parler envisioned a building twice the current size, but the silver ran out. Matěj Rejsek and Benedikt Ried both contributed. The western facade was not completed until 1905. Inside, the frescoes depict miners at work, coin-minters striking the Prague Groschen, and merchants weighing silver ore—a cathedral that celebrates labor alongside faith.
🧩 Riddle
What makes the interior frescoes of St. Barbara’s Cathedral unique among European churches?
💡 Need a hint?
Instead of biblical scenes, the paintings celebrate a different kind of subject.
🎉 The Answer
B. They show mining, minting, and commerce
St. Barbara’s took 517 years from start (1388) to completion (1905). Three of Bohemia’s greatest architects—Johann of Parler, Matěj Rejsek, and Benedikt Ried—each left their mark, creating a living textbook of Gothic architecture.

🌟 Beyond the Walk

Kutná Hora’s greatest hits beyond today’s route

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Church of St. John of Nepomuk
A tiny Baroque gem by Santini-Aichel with an oval nave and undulating walls—a masterclass in Baroque geometry.
📍 Husova, 284 01 Kutná Hora
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Plague Column
Built 1713–1715 as thanks for surviving the plague. Decorated with saints and topped with the Virgin Mary.
📍 Šultysova, 284 01 Kutná Hora
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Ursuline Convent
The Ursuline nuns arrived in 1712 and built this Baroque complex with a dramatic Church of the Most Sacred Heart.
📍 Jiřího z Poděbrad, 284 01 Kutná Hora
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GASK – Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region
Cutting-edge contemporary art in the former Jesuit College. Rotating exhibitions make every visit different.
📍 Barborská 51–53, 284 01 Kutná Hora
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Sankturinovský dűm (Information Center)
A Gothic-Renaissance house serving as the tourist center. Pick up maps, book mine tours, and admire the vaulted rooms.
📍 Palackého náměstí 377, 284 01 Kutná Hora
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Vrchlice River Valley Walk
A peaceful trail along the river below St. Barbara’s, with views of the cathedral’s flying buttresses from below.
📍 Below Barborská, 284 01 Kutná Hora

"Kutná Hora is a stone chronicle of Bohemian glory." — UNESCO inscription, 1995

Est. 13th century — Mons Cutna
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