A Creepy Trip Kutna Hora

When I was working in Germany back in 2008, my colleague suggested that we visit Prague during one of the long weekends. And she further suggested that since we were already in Prague, why not make a half day dash to Kutna Hora using our Eurail tickets.

I was like, What? Kutna Hora? What is there to see?

Skeletons. Lots and lots of them.

Now that sounds really creepy to me.

Seeing a skeleton is already not a good idea, what more being surrounded by thousands of them?

But anyway, we made the trip to Kutna Hora, a small town east of Prague on the same day we were supposed to go back to Germany. We planned to stop by at Kutna Hora for a short while to see the skeletons, then take the train back to Germany via Prague.

It was a 2 hour train from Prague to Kutna Hora and it costs 97Kc (about RM17). The train we took didn’t go directly to Kutna Hora, but instead we need to switch trains at a small town called Kolin.

Kutna Hora isn’t a big town. It’s more like a residential area. All the attractions (mostly churches) are within walking distance from the train station, but none of them interests me except one.

Kostnice Ossuary.

In 1278, Henry, the abbot of Sedlec was sent to the Holy Land. On returning, he brought soil from Golgotha and sprinkled it on the ground here. As a consequence, the burial ground was considered holy and became extremely popular. In 1511 a chapel was constructed to house the bones from abolished graves. The chapel is open to the public, and contains the bones of about 40000 people, arranged by František Rint in 1870. Rint’s work includes an enormous chandelier including every bone in the body, and a crucifix style arrangement near the main altar.

It looked like other churches from the outside, but once I stepped inside, all I see was skeletons.

Bones..and bones..and bones, everywhere from the ceiling to the floor!

At first it was quiet scary actually. The more I see them, I felt it’s quite artistic and not scary. The way the different types of bones are arrange so precisely together was really unique.

It was my first time surrounded by so many dead people’s bones. But after a while it’s not so scary afterall.

Creepy isn’t it?