Kutna Hora

It’s hard to imagine today, but in its time this town about 65km southeast of Prague was Bohemia’s most important after Prague. This was due to the rich veins of silver below the town itself, and the silver groschen minted here was the hard currency of central Europe at the time. Today the town is a fraction of its old self, but is still dressed up in enough magnificent architectural monuments for it to have been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1996. With a pastel-hued square dotted with cafés, medieval alleys with facades from Gothic to Cubist, and a cathedral to rival St Vitus, comparisons with Prague are hard to resist. Kutna Hora is certainly as densely picturesque as Prague, and blessed with warmer people and lower prices.

The historical centre is compact enough to see on foot. Those who need their dose of ‘culture’ will have no trouble finding their cravings fulfilled by the fascinating sights on offer. For a truly macabre sight, there is a cemetery at Sedlec with a Gothic ossuary decorated with the bones of some 40,000 people. For some beautiful religious architecture minus bones, visit the Gothic Church of Our Lady, the St James Church, the 17th-century former Jesuit College, which has Baroque sculpture in front of it, the Cathedral of St Barbara and the Ursuline Convent, which houses an exhibition of antiques. If you are interested in the town’s mining history, visit the Hradek Mining Museum and the medieval mine shafts.