A few weekends ago, I accompanied Miki to a quaint little town called Kunta Hora. It's an hour east of Prague by train. Miki claims it is the 2nd largest tourist town in the Czech Republic (2nd of course to Prague). I had a hard time believing that considering the size of the town. Miki and his roommate were going to Kunta Hora to play in an indoor football (soccer) tournament. So I traversed the city on my own. We arrived shortly after 9. There was not much open at 9 on a Saturday (including the visitor's center. Not wanting to sit around in the pretty chilly November morning air, I took a picture of the large tourist map outside the info center, and headed towards the main attraction of this town for someone in her early twenties not particularly knowledgeable of, or, let's be honest, super interested in history: the bone church. It's officially called an ossuary (a place or receptacle for the bones of the dead). The surrounding cemetery had always been a popular resting place for the social elites of the area, but then someone brought sand from Golgotha in the Holy Land to the cemetery, and then everyone from the Czech Republic and surrounding countries wanted to be buried there. Therefore the land quickly became overcrowded and needed to be expanded. During the expansion, tons of really old bones were dug up, and stored in the ossuary (I'm assuming that's the building part). They were originally just in heaps kind of like the laundry in my room right now until a woodcarver named František Rint decided to make them aesthetically pleasing. The result was pretty cool.
The chandelier has every type of bone in the human body. The ossuary is actually located outside of Kutna Hora in Sedlec. So round trip it was about an hour walk. But even with traveling to Sedlec by foot and back, I was still able to see all 16 attractions marked on the city map in about 5 hours and I was still able to see Miki's last match of the tournament (they came in 5th out of 7). I went inside everything I was allowed in as well with the exception of the silver mine which you need reservations to tour and is only in czech in less you organize a special group in advance. But otherwise there were only 3 places to visit. Two of the others were closed just for construction, but most of the churches were closed to visitors except by appointment. Which is why it's hard for me to believe it's the second largest tourist city in the Czech Republic. How can something be such a huge spot for tourists when there are only 3 places for them to go? But then I remember that before I met Miki, I probably couldn't name another city in the Czech Republic besides Prague, and because of it's small size and close proximity to Prague,it would make since that lots of visitors to Prague make the day trip. Now, enjoy more photo highlights from the trip. I hope you like looking at buildings!
Ursuline Convent
Church of the Assumption of Our Lady
St. Barbara's Cathedral
A cute little road
The cat I saw and kind of chased by the Italian Court
The Stone Fountain
Church of St. John of Nepomuk
Plague Column
Italian Court
The chandelier has every type of bone in the human body. The ossuary is actually located outside of Kutna Hora in Sedlec. So round trip it was about an hour walk. But even with traveling to Sedlec by foot and back, I was still able to see all 16 attractions marked on the city map in about 5 hours and I was still able to see Miki's last match of the tournament (they came in 5th out of 7). I went inside everything I was allowed in as well with the exception of the silver mine which you need reservations to tour and is only in czech in less you organize a special group in advance. But otherwise there were only 3 places to visit. Two of the others were closed just for construction, but most of the churches were closed to visitors except by appointment. Which is why it's hard for me to believe it's the second largest tourist city in the Czech Republic. How can something be such a huge spot for tourists when there are only 3 places for them to go? But then I remember that before I met Miki, I probably couldn't name another city in the Czech Republic besides Prague, and because of it's small size and close proximity to Prague,it would make since that lots of visitors to Prague make the day trip. Now, enjoy more photo highlights from the trip. I hope you like looking at buildings!
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