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We took a day trip to Kuntna Hora, about an hour from Prague, again with Tours By Locals.  This time our guide was Michal Stanislav, and he is without a doubt the best tour guide we have had in our travels.  He runs his own tour company (as well as working for Tours By Locals) called Real Prague Tours.  If you want to tour Prague or any of the surrounding areas, this is your guide!  He is engaging, well educated on the local subject matter, and just a great guy to be around!

Michal first took us into the “Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist”.  That’s a pretty fricking long name for a church!!  Why can’t we just called it “Church of Mary and the Baptist Dude” and be done with it?? We all know who they’re talking about!

This is officially the oldest cathedral in Central Europe.  The former monastery was founded in 1142, and then built between 1280 and 1320.  It was burned and abandoned in 1421 during the Hussite Wars (too many wars to keep track of if you ask me), and then rebuilt at the end of the 17th century.  They like to take their time with the rebuilds around these parts.  The interior is spartan but beautiful, despite how long it took.

There are glass panels in the floor where you can see the original foundations from the 13th century.  Why people feel the need to throw money in these vaults is beyond me.

In a sign of our upcoming “bone church” visit, there are some skulls in the walls of the church.  To be honest with you,  I can’t remember if Michal told us why they are here…except maybe to scare the children?  A lot of religion seems intent on scaring the little buggars.

They definitely love their dead bodies in the church here.  This is the body (with a wax mask) of Saint Felicis.  Again with the scaring of the children!  It must be horrifying to grow up attending a church filled with dead bodies and various body parts!

This is the cathedral’s most valuable relic, a solid gold monstrance.  This is the device that holds the supposed “body of Christ” before you eat it.  Again with scaring the kids!

These figures were outside of the church until fairly recently.  They are made of sandstone, so they didn’t weather well.  They didn’t want the originals to deteriorate any further, so they brought them inside the church.

Here is an exterior view of the cathedral.  For being so old, it looks exceptionally well taken care of, particularly when you bring all the sandstone stuff inside.

We then visited the biggest tourist attraction in Kuntna Hora, the Sedlec Ossuary “Church of Bones”.  This is the entrance to the rather small church.

The ossuary is estimated to consist of the bones of between 40,000 and 70,000 people.  I don’t know about you, but those are two very different numbers!  The church was built around 1400 in the middle of a very large and very populated cemetery, where thousands upon thousands were buried after dying from the Black Death.  They had nowhere to put all of the bones that were dug up during the construction, so they decided to put them inside the church.  Hey, why not…we can scare some kids!

We were told not to take photos inside, even though there are thousands of photos online, so I’m going to post some that were taken by others.

The church currently looks slightly different as they are undergoing renovations to the various piles of bones.  According to legend, in 1511 a half-blind monk was tasked with stacking up recently exhumed bones (sounds like a fun job!).  Apparently the place was a mess until 1870, when Frantisek Rint, a wood carver, was hired to put the bone heaps into some sort of order, which is how we ended up with so many odd configurations.  I’d hate to see what his wood carvings looked like!?  Each corner of the church has an enormous pile of bones.  Here is one of those huge stacks!

This chandelier of bones is said to have one of each bone in the human body.  I’ll bet they didn’t include the really tiny bones in the ears.  Hell, even our feet have 26 bones each!

There is even a coat of arms made of bones for the House of Schwarzenberg, a German and Czech aristocratic family who was instrumental in funding the church.

After exiting the church I saw this marker on the ground at the front gate, and thought it was pretty cool.

One last shot of Sedlec Ossuary as we departed.  It’s really quite small, but well worth the visit.

There was a Lego store near the church that had Tom’s “Simpson’s Doppelganger” sitting on a bench, so I had to get a photo!

On our way to our last stop we saw these markers on the ground, which we have become quite accustomed to based on our time in Amsterdam.  These markers indicate Jews who originally lived in the building we were passing who were murdered during the Holocaust, a somber reminder that the history of WWII is never very far away.

We also ran across this peculiar statue of a bird/car combo.  First the bird…

…then the car.  WTF??  They have some weird art in the Czech Republic!

We then visited our last stop in Kuntna Hora, Saint Barbara’s Cathedral.  This is one of the most famous Gothic churches in central Europe, as well as a UNESCO World Heritage site.  I love the flying buttresses on the cathedral’s exterior!

Saint Barbara is the patron saint of miners, which is quite fitting, as Kuntna Hora’s wealth was based entirely on it’s silver mines.  This cathedral was built for the local mining community, by the local mining community. This fresco in the cathedral is a nod towards their profession.

They also had a fresco depicting the minting process in the city.  This was a cathedral for the laborers, not the nobles.

Construction on the cathedral began in 1388, but with numerous delays, it wasn’t completed until 1905!  Holy crap, that’s like a CalTrans schedule!!  It has a beautiful organ, capped with all manners of gold!

The Last Supper is displayed prominently in the cathedral, along with the 12 Apple-Sauces!

On the back of the altar is my favorite reason for plants to exist…wine grapes!  Could those be Pinot Noir??  Inquiring minds.

The cathedral is adorned with this statue of a miner, letting everybody know who this cathedral is for!

This is the Soch Gallery of statues as you walk north from Saint Barbara’s Cathedral.

Another excellent view of Saint Barbara’s Cathedral!!

Which meant it was time for a group photo!

Up next, we take another trip with our awesome guide Michal about an hour northeast of Prague to visit the Terezin Concentration Camp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed our guide, Dagmar, on our first day so we hired her as our guide again, where we actually went inside Prague Castle and Saint Vitus Cathedral.  Once again, she snagged tram passes and we made our way to the Castle.  To be honest, don’t skip the tours, as the interiors are what makes this place really stand out.

Inside the cathedral, our guide pointed out this stained glass window, only it’s not stained glass, it’s paint.  This window was created in 1930 by a Czech artist named Alphonse Mucha, and depicts the young Saint Wenceslaus with his grandmother Saint Ludmila, as well as small vignettes of the lives of Saints Cyril and Methodius who spread Christianity among the Slavs.  We just liked the use of blues and greens!

Our guide then pointed out this room, the Chapel of Saint Wenceslaus, which houses the relics of the saint (that’s his tomb on the right).  The chapel was built in 1356, and has 1300 semi-precious stones and paintings depicting the Passion of the Christ, all original, from 1372-1373.

The Chapel has this door that leads to the Crown Chamber which contains the Czech crown jewels (no, not the body parts, these are actual jewels).  There are 7 locks on this door which are held by 7 different people, namely; President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Prague Archbishop, the Chairman of the House of Deputies, the Chairman of the Senate, the Dean of the Metropolitan Chapter of St. Vitus Cathedral and the Lord Mayor of Prague.  They must all convene to facilitate opening of the impenetrable door and coffer.

Impenetrable??  Has anybody asked the Mission Impossible people about this?  The jewels are only displayed to the public once every 5 years (some websites say 8, so your mileage may vary).  I’d at least bring them out once a year, just so everybody knows Ocean’s 11, part 3, hasn’t happened!

Adjacent to the altar is this luxury sky-box for the Royals.  They could sit up here and avoid the commoners, which was likely a good thing, since deodorant didn’t exist back then.  They even had their own entrance from the castle!

There are numerous tombs in the cathedral, but the most impressive one is that of Saint John of Nepomuk, the guy who King Wenceslaus killed for not divulging his wife’s confessions to him.  Two tons of pure silver were used to create this tomb!

The cathedral has this wooden panel that depicts Prague back in 1630.  Our guide pointed out that was before any of the statues ended up on the Charles Bridge.

I love the shaft of light coming through the window right above the altar.

Here is a shot from further back in the cathedral.  We were lucky to have a sunny day, as it really makes for a dramatic effect!

Towards the exit of the Cathedral I saw these glowing lights on the walls.  Are they playing Pink Floyd over there?

The sun was creating a light show for us!  Sadly no Pink Floyd.  😞

This window depicts Saint Ludmila (King Wenceslaus’ grandmother) as well as the Twelve Apostles.  I just liked the resulting lighting spectacle!  Quick hint, if you ever hear a European guide mention the “twelve apple-sauces”, they mean Apostles.  They seem to say “apple-sauces” every single time!  I kept thinking “do we even have any cinnamon?”

We then crossed the castle courtyard and entered the “Old Royal Palace” which dates back to the 9th and 10th centuries!  The area below is called Vladislav Hall, and was originally used for horses and jousting ceremonies.  The area where the wooden boards are was depressed and filled with dirt for the horses.  That had to be quite the spectacle inside the palace!

Our guide than dragged us through a very crowded corridor, and I was curious what could be so important to run that gauntlet, when she showed us these windows, known as the “Defenestration Windows”.

Back in 1618, after the Holy Roman Emperor King Ferdinand II ordered the cessation of Protestant church construction on royal lands, a group of Protestants demanded answers from two Catholic regents.  After accusations flew around, the two Catholic hard-liners and their secretary admitted they were the reason for the Emperor’s decision.  The Protestants ended up throwing them from these 3rd story windows, presumably to their death.  The Catholics survived after falling into a dung heap…which is where we get the saying “Shit Happens”.  This act sparked what is known today as the “30 Years War”.

We entered a room that had a replica of the Crown of Saint Wenceslaus, the Royal Crown of the Czech Republic.  At least we didn’t have to wait 5 (or 8) years to see it!

This area is known as the “New” Office of Land Rolls.  This office held a record of who owned what for the entire country, and it actually burned down in 1541, hence the name “New Office”.  On the walls and ceilings are the coats of arms for each position in the court structure.

This is a representation of what the land records looked like dating back to post 1541.

Here we are exiting the Royal area.  The path we are walking down is called the “Rider’s Staircase”, and is specifically designed for horses to get into the castle to gain access to Vladislav Hall.

Our next stop was Saint George’s Basilica, the oldest surviving church building in Prague Castle.  It was founded in 920, and reconstructed over the years, particularly after a fire in 1142.  It’s a mere blip in size compared to Saint Vitus Cathedral!  The walls are very thick and the windows very small, simply because they didn’t have the technology to build a church differently back in 920.

Our last stop within Prague Castle was a region known as the “Golden Lane”.  This is the most famous street in Prague, and lies completely within the walls of the castle.  Here is a look down the very narrow street.

It was also called Alchemist’s Lane or Goldmaker’s Lane, as this 16th century street was inhabited by alchemists supported by Emperor Rudolf II, as they were trying to unravel the mystery of making artificial gold.  Below is the home of an alchemist, with pieces supposedly dating back to the time of his living here.

I guess back in those days you slept where you worked!  The houses in this street were very small, basically like today’s tiny houses.

Down in the basement of this house is where the real work took place, but I’m guessing they never found the key to making fake gold.  I think the Czech Republic would be a far different place today had they figured it out!

This is the interior of a very small pub.  An inventory of houses and taverns in Prague in 1653 indicated that one in every seven homes included a tavern!  That’s my kind of city!

The quote on the pub wall reads “better to put the axe in the block than kneel under the axe of executioner”. In a 17th Century pub this would be seen as a warning of the fate that awaited anybody who took up arms against the Catholic king.

One last stop on the Golden Lane was the torture chamber.  It was so crowded I didn’t bother going down and inside.  What a zoo!  I can’t imagine coming here in the summer!

This is where our guide left us.  We took one last shot from the edge of the castle walls, as they views are so nice up here, and the weather was perfect!

Kim and I needed some food and more importantly a pint of beer, and right across the street from our hotel is an Irish pub, so we had to stop for a Guinness!

I know, another long post…hang in there, almost done!

We relaxed for awhile and then decided to head up to Petrin Tower for an overlook of the city.  We waited awhile for the funicular and then made the short walk to the tower.  Built in 1891, it’s supposed to resemble the Eiffel Tower.  Maybe the one in Vegas??

Regardless of the alleged comparison, there are excellent views from the top of the tower!  This is looking towards Prague Castle.

This shot is looking just to the right of the castle, towards our hotel and the northern reaches of the Vltava River.

While this is the view towards the Charles Bridge.  Look at how crowded that bridge is!  It’s crazy!

Here is a shot from the funicular on the way back down.

Ok, two more photos then you are done!  We ate at an excellent restaurant, one of the best of the trip, called Mylnec.  The view of the Old Town Bridge Tower from the restaurant is excellent!  The food was just as good…book this place!

We met musician and all-around nice guy John Fresk the night prior at the Italian restaurant next door to our hotel.  He was so nice that we invited him to dinner the next night.  John is an ex-pat from Oregon married to a Czech woman, and he is a professional jazz pianist.  It was very cool to meet him and chat him up over dinner.  I only wish we could have seen him perform before we had to depart.

Up next, we take a day trip to Kuntna Hora, a nearby city with a remarkable bone church.  Until then, thanks for reading!