Kutna Hora

After we viewed the most unusual Ossuary, we continued on our way to Kutna Hora. Kutna Hora became rich because of the deposits of silver found there. The silver mines began to be developed in the 14th century, and continued until they closed down in the 17th century. During the time that the mines were in operation, Kutna Hora became a very wealthy and prominent place.


We were led on a walking tour by our tour guide Martina, where she gave us a history of the town and the buildings. There was also a large well in the middle of town that served the citizens with water for drinking, cleaning, etc. The well was built in 1297.

We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant. We enjoyed some good local food: chicken or pork with plum sauce, beer and wine, and Apple streudel for dessert. It was a great opportunity to meet and visit with more of our fellow travelers.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prague by Night

Image
On Saturday night, Denise and Tom took a Prague by Night excursion, which allowed them to see some of the beautiful sights of the city of Prague in lights. Probably the most unusual thing they saw on this trip was the babies on the tv tower. The citizens of Prague are not very proud of their tv tower. They point it out to you and always say that it is the ugliest thing in the city. Well, as if it isn't ugly enough, they've added some climbing babies to the tower. This probably needs a little explanation. A Czech artist placed the "creepy" babies on the side of the tower, as if they are climbing up the tower, in the year 2000 to celebrate Prague's reign as the European Capital of Culture. (Note: no explanation as to why creepy babies climbing a tv tower would be a celebration of this honor.) At the end of 2000, the babies were taken down as they were only intended to be a temporary exhibit. However, there was a public outcry when the babies were removed. (Really?!!...
Read more

Belgrade

Image
On Friday, we started the day with a tour of Belgrade, Serbia. Our tour guide's name was Milan. The name Belgrade means "white city" and comes from the white limestone walls of the fort that was built to protect the city when it was founded. During the years, the area has been taken over by different groups, and has endured so many wars, that it is hard to remember it all. Serbia has a very complicated history. Our tour guide Milan has been a tour guide for 15 years. His father was a tour guide and his grandmother was a tour guide. Before being a tour guide, he sang for the Belgrade Opera for 16 years. He also has a PhD in Art History and is an Art History professor at a local school. Some of the facts Milan shared with us during the bus ride portion of the tour:  - Serbia was once attacked by Attila the Hun (not to be confused with Attila the Hungarian, our former bus driver)  - there is a large Russian influence here, and the Serbian language is very close to the ...
Read more

Osijek

Image
After our house visit in Vukovar, we traveled about a half hour down the road to the town of Osijek (pronounced oysik). We first went to Holy Cross Church. The church is run by the Franciscans. There are four Franciscan monks still active here. In addition to the main church, there are six side altars, the most popular of which is the St. Anthony altar. We were treated to a piano concert in the church that lasted about 15 minutes. After the concert, we went outside into a small courtyard. In this courtyard there was a crucifix, not an unusual thing for a Catholic church. What was unusual, however, was the materials the corpse was composed of: machine gun clips, shellcases, shrapnel, grenades, and barbed wire. Marko told us that the message here is "Forgive, but don't forget." After leaving the church courtyard, we continued our walk through the town. We eventually came to the town square, called Holy Trinity square, which contains another monument of the Holy Tr...
Read more