Kutná Hora

The medieval silver capital of Bohemia and a UNESCO site — St Barbara's cathedral above the Vrchlice valley, the royal mint at the Italian Court, and the Sedlec ossuary on the edge of town.

Kutná Hora grew on silver: from the late 13th century its mines made it the second city of the Bohemian kingdom, and the royal mint at the Italian Court struck the Prague groschen that paid for much of medieval Central Europe. The wealth built St Barbara’s — the miners’ own gothic cathedral, begun in 1388 on the edge of the Vrchlice valley, whose tent-roofed silhouette is the emblem of the town. The historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1995, together with the Sedlec cathedral of the Assumption; the famous ossuary with its bone decorations stands in Sedlec too, close to the main railway station.