kutna hora: churches, bones & frostbite

on friday we took a trip to kutna hora, a town 90 minutes outside of prague. despite the fact that i couldn't feel my extremities for the majority of the trip (it was absolutely freezing out, and our tour guide apparently didn't realize that we aren't used to the central european climate just yet), i had a great time. kutna hora was, at one point, the second-most important city in the czech republic next to prague. silver ore was discovered there during medieval times, and the city became a huge mining center, and eventually became the main coin-minting center in the country.

this is saint barbara's cathedral, the construction of which began in the 14th-15th centuries and was completed after the second world war (bombings destroyed the stained glass, so they had to recontruct a lot of it). i wish they would have allowed us to take photos on the inside because it was absolutely breathtaking.

i'm not sure what church that is in the background, but i think this picture gives an accurate portrayal of the town; the skyline is dominated by church spires.

ok, now for the infamous bone church. the land this church was built on was deemed a holy site, so thousands of people wanted to be buried there. not surprisingly, they ran out of room in the cemetary. so, they dug up the remains of thousands of people to make room, and used the bones to decorate the entire inside of the church. all in all, there are the bones of forty thousand people in this church. try to forget that all these bones once belonged to actual people; it makes looking at (and being in the presence of) this much, much easier. behind that coat of arms in a giant pile of skulls and other assorted human remains. there were four such piles in the church, containing the bones of god-knows how many people.

this chandellier includes every bone in the human body - even toes and the tiny bones of the inner ear. macabre? perhaps. really, really cool? most definitely.