The story of this place
The medieval boom town of Kutná Hora grew rich on silver — its mines once supplied much of Europe's coinage — and its wealthy miners set out to build a church to rival Prague's St Vitus. Begun in 1388, St Barbara's honours the patron saint of miners, and its construction, tied to the fluctuating fortunes of the mines, stretched over five centuries before completion around 1905. Peter Parler's workshop shaped its early Gothic soul; its ribbed vaults bloom into stone flowers, and rare medieval frescoes depict miners at work and the minting of coins. Three tent-like spires crown a flying-buttressed exterior that seems to hover above the valley, a UNESCO World Heritage monument to a vanished silver empire.