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 three below which have been around for a long time and have good reputations. One is a standard tour, another follows the same route but shorter time and includes lunch plus I’ve put an option for one company that offers this as a return train journey instead of a bus. Organised tours include other places like the St Barbara Cathedral and the Mint.
The “Prague Bus Tours” option has been running for a few years now. Meet up in the centre of Prague and it’s a bus straight to Kutna Hora where you normally do Bone Church first, then the mint and lastly the Cathedral but they can switch things around. It’s a 6 hour tour and about 2 hours of that is driving. There is some free time built-in but not enough for a proper meal so it’s either a snack or bring a packed lunch with you. Note that if you want to do your own thing in Kutna Hora you have to agree a meeting point and time with the guide.
Check Prague Bus Tours Kutna Hora Tour Availability and Book Online
The “Prague Expert” Kutna Hora tour follows the same route as above but it’s a shorter tour at 5 hours and that includes lunch so if seeing the sites is more important than spending time learning about them and you want lunch included then try this one.
Check the Prague Expert Kutna Hora Tour Availability and Book Online
Discover Prague Tours is the only company that offers a guided tour using a standard private coach OR you have the option of using the train to get to and from Kutna Hora so that’s a bit different. It extends the tour time to 7 hours but take a drink/snack on the train and make a day of it.
Check Discovery Tours Kutna Hora Tour Availability and Book Online
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 station. However, it’s best to start with the Bone Church (Ossuary) first and work back to the centre so ideally you want to go to the station called “Kutna Hora Sedlec”. This is one station AFTER “Kutna Hora Mesto” (TIP: when you leave Prague get a return ticket to Sedlec so you don’t have to wait at the Kutna Hora ticket office). 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”.
To get back you’ll have a 1.2Km walk to the main Kutna Hora station or there’s a scenic walk that takes you down “Pod Barborska” to the river and then take signs for “Centrum” and/or “Mesto” and you’ll find the standard tourist signs for the station.