One of Europe's largest cities in the 1300s and once the richest city in the Czech lands, Kutna Hora, 45 mi/70 km east of Prague, was an important silver-mining center and the site of the kingdom's first mint. All that wealth built some of the finest Gothic architecture in Bohemia—be sure to visit the extravagantly buttressed St. Barbara Cathedral.
At the Czech Silver Museum, located at the Hradek, which is a small palace, you can learn about the medieval mining industry and the mint. In warmer months, you can suit up in coveralls and a helmet and go down in the medieval mine tunnels.
Nearby is the ghoulish but fascinating ossuary at Sedlec. The site holds 40,000 sets of bones (most date from the plague years) that have been formed into decorative pieces such as bells and chalices. One main attraction is a chandelier created using all the bones of the human body.
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