Kutná Hora, Czech Republic

The day started out a cloudy one, which only added to the ominous mood of what we were about to see.

Kutná Hora, a city in the Czech Republic, is known for having two churches classified as UNESCO World heritage sights. The two could not be more different. There is the beautiful St. Barbara's Church, and then there is The Sedlec Ossuary, commonly known as the "Bone Church."

We started the day by visiting The Sedlec Ossuary, a church decorated entirely of real human bones. There is nothing in the world like this.

In the 1300s, a graveyard in this area was said to have "holy soil" from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. By the 1400s, more than 30,000 people had been buried in the cemetery, many due to the plague and the Hussite wars. They had to dig them up and store them in a chapel to make more room.

In 1870, the royal Schwarzenberg family hired a famous woodcarver, František Rint, to turn the bones that were housed in the chapel into artwork.

The result? Something like this:

Believe it or not, we didn't spend a whole bunch of time in here. Gave us the creeps. We stayed maybe 20 minutes.

The chapel includes artwork created using every type of human bone

The worst part of it all was seeing people taking "selfies" with the skulls. I could go on a rant about this for a while, but I would hope most people would be able to see the problem there.

I would never want to live in the house next to this chapel....

The rest of the city of Kutná Hora was surprisingly cute and cheerful.

Love day trips with these gals!

Peep the colored houses from The Czech Republic!

Movable sphere statue! Outside the modern art museum

Parliament Building

The pathway up to St. Barbara's Church has strong similarities to The Charles Bridge in Prague!

St. Barbara's Church is one of the most famous Gothic churches in Europe, and its building began in 1388. St Barbara is the patron saint of miners, which makes sense for a city whose wealth was based entirely upon its silver mines. This Roman Catholic Church's construction depended on how well the silver mines were doing, so the three staggered roof design was completed in 1588. The church was humbling to walk up to, since it was so giant and majestic!

The ceiling of the church, showing crests of people who contributed to the church or influenced the city.

Many of the stained glass windows reflect stories of the Bible, as well as the life of miners.

Prayer pennies

The sun came out!

Finished off the day with some hot chocolate, a Czech sausage, and sauerkraut!

Smile :)