Monday, July 13, 2009

Kutna Hora - Bone Church

On our way back to Prague we detoured to the town of Kutna Hora. I have struggled with how to present this entry without it creeping you out. Just a warning....if real skeletons give you the heebie-jeebies then you might want to skip this post.

We visited a "bone church" in this small town. There are the bones of 40,000 folks in this small religious structure. They were laid and stacked by monks in geometric artistic designs. There is supposed to be some grandiose message about how the dead and the living are connected and joined in Heaven. But it is hard not to just gape at the place. And hard to know whether to be freaked out or intrigued by it. The chandelier is supposed to have been made from every bone in the body.
Definitely not something you would find on a tourist route through the USA!
As if to bring us back to the land of the living, we passed this marvelous field of sunflowers on the way from Kutna Hora back into Prague. They seemed to dance in the wind and their faces were absolutely enormous.
Kutna Hora appeared to be a town that had much more to offer than the unusual ossuary. There were silver mines and a charming city centre. But you know us - traveling at the speed of light! Creepy though it was, I am glad we saw the "bone church" in Kutna Hora. Another glimpse at life and the people of the Czech Republic.

1 comment:

Dallas said...

I just realized that my last post matched this one - the bone church and sunflowers. Hehe...