Kutná Hora is a medieval mining and minting town in the Central Bohemian Region whose historic core, with St. Barbara's Church, Kutná Hora, and the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Sedlec, has been on the UNESCO list since 1995.
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Kutná Hora is a town in the Central Bohemian Region that arose from a cluster of medieval settlements around mines and smelters. According to the Association of Historical Settlements of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, as a large industrial agglomeration and royal mining town with a mint it soon became the second town after Prague and the seat of the Czech kings.[2] The historic core of the town, with St. Barbara's Church, Kutná Hora, and the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Sedlec, has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1995.[1][2]
Silver and the royal town
According to the UNESCO description, Kutná Hora developed thanks to silver mining. In the 14th century it became a royal town with monuments that symbolised its prosperity.[1] Mining also took place underground: hand-hewn workings reached depths of around 600 m in places. Archaeological evidence of human activity, from the Bronze Age to the very beginnings of silver mining, has also survived underground.[2] According to the association, the storeys of burgher houses contain more than forty timber cribs from the mining of 1437 to 1495.[2]
The heritage reservation
The urban heritage reservation lies above the valley of the Vrchlice stream. The eastern part is called Dolní město (the Lower Town), and the western part, ending above a spur, is known as Horní město (the Upper Town). Most of the historic buildings stand there.[2] The association states that the town's wealth consists of two Romanesque churches, two cathedrals, five Gothic churches and one Baroque one, three monasteries, more than forty statues, sculptural groups and chapels, and 278 burgher houses registered as cultural monuments.[2] According to UNESCO, these buildings form part of a well-preserved medieval urban fabric with a number of private houses.[1]
St. Barbara's Church, Kutná Hora, and other buildings
UNESCO describes St. Barbara's Church, Kutná Hora, as a work of the late Gothic that influenced the architecture of Central Europe.[1] According to the association, its architecture reflects the effort of generations of Kutná Hora's inhabitants between 1380 and 1550 to adorn the town with a building that would symbolise their prosperity.[2]
Together with St. Barbara's Church, Kutná Hora, the panorama of the royal mining town is formed by the Jesuit college building, the Hrádek, the Church of St. James and the Vlašský dvůr.[2] The oldest parts of the Vlašský dvůr date from the early 14th century. At the end of the 19th century it underwent purist alterations, but according to the association it has preserved evidence of the work of the mines and the mint.[2] The 14th-century Church of St. James has furnishings that mostly go back to the late Gothic period. The Baroque building of the former Jesuit college, with its Baroque row of statues, is, according to the association, being given a new use as a multifunctional space of the Czech Museum of Fine Arts. The Hrádek is an example of the residence of a medieval mining entrepreneur, and its interiors are part of the exhibitions of the Czech Museum of Silver.[2]
Sedlec
The Cistercian monastery with the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is part of the history and urban fabric of Kutná Hora. It is the result of the building work of the Cistercians in the 12th to 14th centuries and of the work of Jan Blažej Santini Aichel in the 18th century, who combined the restoration of the Gothic building with new elements of Baroque Gothic.[2] UNESCO states that the cathedral in Sedlec was restored in line with the Baroque taste of the early 18th century and, like St. Barbara's Church, Kutná Hora, influenced the architecture of Central Europe.[1] According to the association, the cathedral and the nearby two-storey Sedlec Ossuary are among the most visited monuments of the town.[2]