Day trips - Prague and the Czech Republic - page 158

orientation
Tourist Information
The main TI is on Palackého Náměstí, housed in the same build-
ing as the Alchemy Museum (Mon-Fri 9:00-18:00, Sat-Sun
10:00-16:00, tel. [phone], www.kutnahora.cz). It offers Internet
access and also rents bicycles (220 Kč/day, mobile [phone]).
A small TI kiosk, with handy WCs, is in front of the cathe-
dral; you can hire a local guide here. Ideally, reserve ahead (500
Kč/hr Tue-Sun, no tours Mon, tel. [phone], mobile 736-485-
408, [e-mail]).
SigHtS
In Kutná Hora
St. Barbara's Cathedral (Chrám Sv. Barbory) —he cathedral
was founded in 1388 by miners, who dedicated it to their patron.
The dazzling interior celebrates the town's sources of wealth, with
frescoes featuring mining and minting. Even the Renaissance
vault—a stunning feat of the two Gothic geniuses of Prague,
Matyáš Rejsek and Benedict Ried—is decorated with miners' coats
of arms. The artistic highlight is the Smíšek Chapel to the right
of the altar. The late-Gothic frescoes— The Arrival of the Queen
of Sheba, The Trial of Trajan, and especially the fresco under the
chapel's window depicting two men with candles—are the only
works of a Dutch-trained master in Gothic Bohemia (30 Kč, daily
9:00-18:00 in summer, shorter hours off-season).
As you exit the cathedral, you'll see the Baroque Jesuit col-
lege on your left (currently being converted into a gallery). Jesuits
arrived here in 1626 with a mission: to make the Protestant popu-
lation Catholic again. The statues of saints on the artificial ter-
race in front of the college were inspired by the statues on Charles
Bridge.
Hrádek and the Czech Museum of Silver —At this museum,
located in Kutná Hora's 15th-century castle, you'll see an exhibit
on mining and an intriguing horse-powered winch that hoisted
2,000 pounds of rock at a time out of the mine. Then you'll don
a miner's coat and helmet and climb deep into the mine for a wet,
dark, and claustrophobic 45-minute tour of the medieval shafts that
honeycomb beneath the town (April-Oct Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00,
closed Mon and Nov-March, tours generally every half hour, tel.
327-512-159). When you arrive in Kutná Hora, find out when the
next English-language tour will run and reserve a spot; ask for Mr.
Matuška, a charming retired miner.
Stone Fountain (Kamenná Kašna) —Because of intensive min-
ing under the town, Kutná Hora has always struggled with the