We are up early and catch the metro to Praha main railway for the train to Kutna Hora. The Ossuary, or 'bone church' is around a 15 minute, aesthetically bland walk from the station and tragically, Czech suburbia has been constructed around it. Nevertheless, the bizarre interior of this very small church makes this destination well worth the visit. A little bit of history and description (Wikipedia 2012):

In 1278, Henry, the abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Sedlec, was sent to the Holy Land by King Otakar II of Bohemia. He returned with him a small amount of earth he had removed from Golgotha and sprinkled it over the abbey cemetery. The word of this pious act soon spread and the cemetery in Sedlec became a desirable burial site throughout Central Europe.

In the mid 14th century, during the Black Death, and after the Hussite Wars in the early 15th century, many thousands were buried in the abbey cemetery, so it had to be greatly enlarged.

Around 1400, a gothic church was built in the center of the cemetery with a vaulted upper level and a lower chapel to be used as an ossuary for the mass graves unearthed during construction.

After 1511, the task of exhuming skeletons and stacking their bones in the chapel was given to a half-blind monk of the order.

In 1870, František Rint, a woodcarver, was employed by the House of Schwarzenberg family to put the bone heaps into order, yielding a macabre result.

The Ossuary is decorated by around 40000 human skeletons. The big chandelier in the middle of the Church is made up of at least one of every human bone.

We leave the Ossuary and proceed to the cathedral of which is only 150 metres away. This church has been UNESCO listed and is the oldest in the czech republic. however, the interior walls have been cleaned up and repainted in a way that erodes the impact of it's ancient origins. From here, it is at least a 3 km, half hour, fast paced walk to the historical section of the town. The walk there is uglier than the walk to the Ossuary, high density housing most of the way, a legacy of the Communist era. The elevated historical part of town is quite beautiful and provides stark contrast to the surrounding town. Externally,the gothic Sant Barbara's is very impressive because of it's uniqueness, established by the three minaret shaped spires that sit along the apex of the roof. Inside though, I experienced a feeling of resignation as there was nothing that stood out from the plethora of Catholic cathedrals we have visited over the last 6 weeks.

We power walk back to the railway and agree that the Ossuary was well worth the trip but other elements of Kutna Hora are perhaps better suited to people starting their overseas travel in Bohemia, Czech Republic rather than people who may have already ventured around Europe exploring historical towns and churches prior to arriving here.