Kutná Hora: Historical Town Centre with the Church of St Barbara and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec

The Ossuary of Sedlec, part of this site, is among the most visited tourist attractions of the Czech Republic

Kutná Hora

This postcard was sent by Ondrej

Kutná Hora developed as a result of the exploitation of the silver mines. In the 14th century it became a royal city endowed with monuments that symbolized its prosperity. The Church of St Barbara, a jewel of the late Gothic period, and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec, which was restored in line with the Baroque taste of the early 18th century, were to influence the architecture of central Europe. These masterpieces today form part of a well-preserved medieval urban fabric with some particularly fine private dwellings. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/732/

Church of St Barbara

Saint Barbara's Church (Czech: Chrám svaté Barbory) is a Roman Catholic church in Kutná Hora (Bohemia) in the style of a Cathedral, and is sometimes referred to as the Cathedral of St Barbara (Czech: Katedrál sv. panny Barbory). It is one of the most famous Gothic churches in central Europe.

Construction began in 1388, but because work on the church was interrupted several times, it was not completed until 1905.

Internal points of note are the glass windows, altars, pulpits and choir stalls. Medieval frescoes depicting the secular life of the medieval mining town and religious themes have been partially preserved. - in: Wikipedia

Sedlec Ossuary

The Sedlec Ossuary (Czech: Kostnice v Sedlci) is a small Roman Catholic chapel, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints (Czech: Hřbitovní kostel Všech Svatých), part of the former Sedlec Abbey in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, whose bones have, in many cases, been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.

Four enormous bell-shaped mounds occupy the corners of the chapel. An enormous chandelier of bones, which contains at least one of every bone in the human body, hangs from the center of the nave with garlands of skulls draping the vault. Other works include piers and monstrances flanking the altar, a coat of arms of the House of Schwarzenberg, and the signature of Rint, also executed in bone, on the wall near the entrance. - in: Wikipedia