That
tells you something about the power of suggestion.
You
see, my SO has this guidebook? Bible? It is her constant companion,
even more than me I think... Nah, the old girl and I get along fine
(most of the time); she just likes to know what's to be seen in new
places we hang out in for a while. After all you can't cocoon all the
time. And she has gazillions (exaggeration) of guidebooks.
inspiration for pirate flags and poison bottles? |
Anyway,
to make a long story short, she's telling me about this place called
Kutna Horror that has thousands of human bones for decoration in an
ossuary (formerly a chapel). You have to understand one thing about
her guidebook—it's in Japanese writing. Words of foreign origin are
written in syllabic characters called katakana that try to
phonetically depict the sounds of the original. What she was saying
sounded to me like Kutna Horror and since it was a place full of
human bones the name made sense to me.
Now,
there is another place in the Prague suburbs called Bila Hora that
means White Mountain. Enlightenment descended upon me and I made the
connection between the two Horas. So I asked the SO: “Is this the
same Hora as Kutna Hora?” Says she: “Well, yes, of course, what
did you think?”
Never
mind, we won't go into that.
We
took a day trip (an hour by train from Prague) to Kutna Hora, a world
heritage sight. Saw the gothic church of St. Barbara (begun, 1388;
completed, 1558), patron saint of miners [the area had silver mines
and a mint in town]. The church is interesting for its unusual roof
lines which form concave pyramids [look a little like a three-ring
circus tent). According to the promo literature, the church was
entirely paid for by the local people without money from the Vatican.
True believers indeed! We stopped for coffee and a salad in a little
coffee shop near the church and then took the “scenic” route and
walked three or four kilometers to the Sedlec Ossuary that contains
the human bones of an estimated 40,000 to 70,000 people, 10,000 of
which are used for the decorations.
And
here I'll shut up and let the photos speak for themselves. See above
link.
1 comment:
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