Kutna Hora Bone Church
What’s in Kutna Hora?
Once the second richest town in the kingdom you’ll be surprised at the quality of the architecture for what is really just a mid-sized provincial town. You’ll be interested in the Gothic St Barbara Cathedral, the Mint and the Church of All Saints (Bone Church/Ossuary) and organised tours will show you all or some of them. Usually the Bone church (Ossuary is container for bones) is the first to be visited and you’ll get a chance to see some pretty unique decoration using more than 40,000 bones (look out for the Schwarzenberg coat of arms and the chandelier). Note that from January 2020 photography is NOT allowed. The Bone Church is a complete one-off and well worth a visit to see something you’ll not find anywhere else. My Tips: If doing the organised tour take a small packed lunch with you. You cannot eat on the bus but, you will have time to eat/drink in the town. So treat yourself to a visit to Kutna Hora, a provincial Czech town that just happens to have a couple of popular places and you’ll have a nice time.
Kutna Hora as an Organised Tour
If you are doing this on your own then check the section below which describes the train options. For organised tours I’ve put options below which have been around for a long time and have good reputations. Both do pick-ups and drop-offs. Both include entry tickets and guided tour of the Bone Church and Cathedral. Where it says “One Day” or “Half Day” it means between 6 and 7 hours for the whole excursion i.e. there and back.
Kutna Hora On Your Own
My advice is to take the regular train service but be careful with the stations. Buy return tickets at Prague Main Train Station. The fast services take about 50 minutes to the main Kutna Hora and you have two choices. Firstly if you want to go direct to the centre of town you will buy a ticket for “Kutna Hora Mesto” but note that you will have to change trains at “Kutna Hora Hl.n”. Or secondly, if it’s your aim to go to the bone church then still buy the return ticket to Kutna Hora Mesto but when you change trains you go one stop to Sedlec. Get off at Sedlec and take the station road to the main road. Then it’s a right-left and don’t bother looking for any Bone Church signs, instead you’ll follow the signs for “Kostnice”. If you want details on entry cost and opening times etc then check the Ossuary website.
From the Bone Church you can catch a taxi back to the centre or it’s a 1.5Km walk which will take about 30 minutes. From there it’s a 5 minute walk to the Mint (called the Italian Court but the street signs will say “Vlassky Dvur”). There’s a Tourist Information office here so get a map.
On the map you should see the Italian Court and the Saint Barbara Cathedral linked by a road called “Barborska”.
Eventually, to get back you’ll go to the Kutna Hora Mesto station from where your return ticket is valid.
My Own Guided Tours – Cheaper Than You Think!
