Day-trips from Prague - The Rough Guide to Prague - page 229

Leafy Havličkovo náměstí is home to one of the town's top sights, the Vlašskýdvůr , origin-
ally conceived as a palace by Václav II and for three centuries the town's bottomless purse,
whereFlorentine minters producedthePraguegroschenatanincredible rate oftwothousand
per twelve-hour shift. The building itself has been messed about with over the years, most
recently - and most brutally - by nineteenth-century restorers, who left only the fourteenth-
century oriel window (capped by an unlikely looking wooden onion dome) and the miners'
fountainunmolested.Theoriginalworkshopsofthemintershavebeenbrickedin,buttheout-
lines of their little doors and windows are still visible in the courtyard. On the thirty-minute
guided tour - available in English - you get to see some silver groschen, learn about the
minters' hard lives and admire the medieval royal chapel, which shelters a superb full-relief
fifteenth-century altarpiece depicting the Death of Mary, and which was spectacularly redec-
orated in 1904 with Art Nouveau murals.
Outside the court is a statue of the country's founder and first president, T.G. Masaryk .
Twice removed - once by the Nazis and once by the Communists - it has now been returned
to its original position, pride of place. Before you leave, take a quick look in the court gar-
dens, which descend in steps to the Vrchlice valley. This is undoubtedly Kutná Hora's best
profile, with a splendid view over to the Cathedral of sv Barbora .
Sv Jakub (St James)
Havlíčkovo náměstí
Behind the Vlašský dvůr is the church of sv Jakub , the town's oldest, begun a generation
or so after the discovery of the silver deposits. Its grand scale indicates clearly quite how
wealthy Kutná Hora was by the fourteenth century, though its artistry pales in comparison
with Kutná Hora's other ecclesiastical buildings. The leaning tower is a reminder of the pre-
carious position of the town, the church's foundations being prone to subsidence from the
redundant mines below.
České muzeum stříbra (Czech Silver Museum)
Barborská 28 • Guided tours every 30min: April & Oct Tues-Sun 9am-5pm; May, June & Sept 9am-6pm; July
& Aug Tues-Sun 10am-6pm; Nov 10am-4pm • “Town of Silver” (1hr) 70Kč, “Way of Silver” (booking ad-
vised; 1hr 30min) 120Kč • 327 512 159, cms-kh.cz
The Hrádek is an old fort that, once used as a second mint, is now given over to the České
muzeum stříbra , where visitors can learn how fourteenth-century miners extracted silver
ore. There are two tours to choose from. The “ Town of Silver ” ( Město stříbra ), which takes
around an hour, offers a simple scoot around the museum, tracing the history of mining in
the region and looking at local geology; more fun, and very popular, is the “ Way of Silver ”
( Cesta stříbra ), which takes thirty minutes longer and skips the museum entirely. Here you
donminer'sgarbandfollowaguidethroughnarrowsectionsofthemedievalminesthatwere
discovered beneath the fort in the 1960s - some of which tunnel more than 100m down.