In a small town outside of Prague, a nondescript church contains the bones of 40,000 humans. The bones decorate the walls, creating a coat of arms, a massive chandelier, and a gigantic tower reaching to the ceiling. As soon as I heard about the Bone Church — officially called the Sedlec Ossuary — I planned a day trip to Kutná Hora from Prague to see it.

Instead of attempting to a day trip on my own, I booked this tour with an experienced guide. It includes transportation from Prague and tours of the Bone Church, St. Barbara’s Church, and the Italian Court. (More on all these below.) But this tour adds Hradek Castle to the itinerary, which would be awesome.

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A Day Trip to Kutná Hora from Prague

Kutná Hora is 83 Miles from Prague

The tour started in Prague’s Old Town in a small van. During the hour-long drive, the guide told us the history of the area. Kutná Hora was once a bustling city centered around the silver mining industry and where the kingdom’s coins were minted from 1300-1548. But after becoming part of the Hapsburg Empire of Austria, the mine flooded. Then the city suffered several bouts of the Plague, followed by wars, leading to its downfall.

It’s been a quiet town ever since then. With a population of about 20,000 people, it’s cute and quaint. But full of history and beautiful landmarks.

The Bone Church in Kutná Hora

The first stop of the tour was the Sedlec Ossuary. After reading a Buzzfeed article about it, I expected the Bone Church to be as creepy as the Catacombs in Paris. But it was actually strangely peaceful.

Even the story behind the bones was less morbid than I imagined. The Sedlec Ossuary became a coveted place to be buried after the abbot sprinkled dirt brought from the Holy Land in the cemetery in 1278. In the 14th Century, the ossuary expanded after thousands died of the Black Plague and again in the 15th Century after the Hussite Wars. In 1511, a half-blind monk exhumed the bones and stacked them inside the church.

It wasn’t until 1870 that the bones turned into art. The Schwarzenberg family, an aristocratic Bohemian family, hired František Rint to organize the bones. He is responsible for creating the chandelier, giant goblets, and the Schwarzenberg coat of arms out of bones. He even signed his name using bones on the wall.

St. Barbara’s Church

Next we went to St. Barbara’s Church, a cathedral-style church built from 1388-1905. The construction was interrupted several times (once because of the Hussite Wars) and depended on the wealth of the nearby silver mines. As time—and construction—went on, the productivity of the mines declined and the size of the cathedral was downsized from the original plans to almost half of what was planned.

Inside are frescoes surviving from the Medieval times showing how everyday life was for those who lived in Kutná Hora and wooden choir benches hundreds of years old.

The Italian Court

Then we walked through the old streets of Kutná Hora to the Italian Court, where the silver was turned into coins. Named after the Italian experts who perfected minting, the large building doubled as a residence when the king was visiting Kutná Hora. Built in the late 13th Century, the building was once the town castle. Later, the fortress stored the mine’s silver and minted it into coins. Today, it is a museum of coin minting.

The Streets of Kutná Hora

But my favorite part of my day trip to Kutná Hora was just walking along the ancient streets, past Medieval houses next door to 17th Century houses surrounded by modern apartments. We walked through a square with a Plague Pillar, a statue-like column of the Virgin Mary thanking her for ending the plague that killed more than a thousand people. We went by the former Jewish synagogue, now an administration building because all the Jews of Kutná Hora died in the Holocaust.

Walking through the streets of Kutná Hora was a reminder of how connected we are to the past. It’s so easy to think of the plague and even the Holocaust as such distant events in history, but not when walking by artifacts surviving from those time periods.

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It’s funny to think I was drawn to Kutná Hora for a creepy church filled with human bones, but I left in awe of the history and the culture of Central Bohemia.

If you’re thinking of taking a day trip to Kutná Hora from Prague I recommend this tour with an experienced guide or this tour with Hradek Castle.

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