On this trip to the Czech Republic I had planned to see beside the treasure trove of Prague one new WHS and one new TWHS: The Villa Tugendhat in Brno and the Jested Tower near Liberec. None of it worked out. For the Villa Tugendhat even three weeks ahead was too late to find any space in a tour, they are now booked out for months ahead, even in wintertime. While I enjoyed Brno for its lively old town and the beautiful St. James church with its ossuary, I decided not to visit the Villa just from the the outside since the garden is hardly enjoyable in wintertime. After that we didn't do our day trip to Liberec either because the performance of two rare Rachmaninov operas that we had planned to see was cancelled. I decided instead to use that day for a short day trip to Kutna Hora. 

There is about one train per hour from Prague main station to Kutna Hora main station, sometimes you have to change trains in Kolin. From Kutna Hora main station you have often a very tiny, cute local train to the nearby stations of Kutna Hora Sedlec (for the Cathedral of our Lady) and Kutna hora mesto (for the old town, the mine, the church of St. Barbara etc.). With a little planning this additional train saves you a lot of walking through modern parts of the town. Better be well prepared because in the small trains the staff may only speak Czech!

Despite the fact that all our trains were late we reached all connecting trains so I had the impression that they waited for the arriving trains. We got off at Sedlec and went to the ticket office were you can by seperate tickets for the Cathedral and the ossuary or, as we did, a combined ticket for both of them and the church of St. Barbara in the town center. The Ossuary which is not in the core Zone but only part of the large buffer zone is the main tourist attraction of this area and there were several signs the encourage you visit not only the ossuary but to see the Cathedral as well since you are there already! 

I found the cathedral in itself rather underwhelming. It is as plain from the inside as from the outside, with a bright but a bit sugary color palette between yellow and orange. The most unusual feature is the arched ceiling in the gothic baroque stile which is only found in Czechia and perhaps better enjoyed at the Pilgrimage Church of St John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora. The Sedlec cathedral seems to be important as the first gothic cathedral in Czechia but is was severely damaged in the Hussite wars and only rebuilt around 1700. This might explain why it didn't seem very authentically gothic to me. The nearby ossuary chapel is certainly an interesting curiosity but a bit blasphemous for my taste. Ossuaries seem to be no rarity in this area and I found the ossuary in Brno more impressive. 

After spending in hour in Sedlec we took the short train ride to the town center. Here there are so many things to see here that it is a bit hard what to choose if you are rushed. The one clear single highlight of the whole site is the magnificent church of St. Barbara which is already an unusual sight from the outside with its three-peaked roof without any tower. The inside is very elegant and worth to spent some time in it. It reminded my of the wonderful church of the Hieronymus monastery in Lisbon. The second most impressive attraction for me was the lovely old town itself with crooked lanes but impressive mostly baroque houses. If you are there in the warmer and brighter month I would definitely recommend to spend a night there and enjoy the evening to stroll around and enjoy the atmosphere. I had to do this in a rush which seemed a pity. 

There is an astonishing number of museums in town of which we visited first the Italian court. This can only be done with a tour that promises the “jewel in the crown of Czech kings". In fact you see a nice medieval chapel which is completely covered in Art Nouveau painting and a great hall from the late middle ages. The latter has a beautiful original ceiling and large nineteenth century historic painting at the walls. Beside that you get to see only a film about the process of mining and coining and the history of the place. If you know something about these topics it is not worth it and it is narrated with such a strong American (?) accent that we found it hard to follow. The friendly lady who guided us was even harder to understand since she omitted all articles and said funny words like "meet" for "mint", and this twenty times in one tour. The most interesting fact of the tour was that most of there silver came from Jachymov, now part of the Czeck Erzgebirge WHS and that they coined here the famous Joachimstaler, the famous model for the American Dollar. All in all I would recommend to see the Castle just from the outside and the courtyard and skip the tour. 

There is a second large museum, the Bohemian silver museum in a castle-like building which seems to be the entrance to the mine. This was closed at the day we were there and it seems the mine is closed for renovation. Furthermore there is the Stone House museum with a very nice late gothic facade, the Dacicky House which is interesting if you want to know more about the renovation of the town and about the other Czech WH sites. The Tyl house is mainly about the Czeck author with the same name and therefore of little interest for most foreign tourists. Very impressive from the outside is the huge Jesuit College, now a museum for contemporary art. There are also at least two more appealing looking churches in town: St. James and The Church of Our Lady Na Náměti, but both have very limited opening hours in the winter season and were closed. Last but not least there is an unusual late gothic public Stone Fountain (near the church of St.Nepomuk) which is quickly seen but it would be a pity to miss it. Just after my trip I found this excellent website about the attractions in Kutna Hora which may be very helpful for checking out opening hours: https://destinace.kutnahora.cz/d/sights-kutna-hora. 

Beside the great St. Barbara church the attraction of Kutna Hora lies for me less in the individual museums and attractions but in the atmosphere of its historic core and I think one needs more then the four hours I spent there and perhaps also better weather to really explore and enjoy its special late medieval and baroque charm.