A beautiful Day here in Prague today; 50 F and mild.

Yesterday and today were in the 50's F, like Spring in February and both days were sunny as well. As I traveled East yesterday I noted not one bit of snow anywhere as I gazed out into the countryside from the train windows..and the same holds true for Prague; There is no longer any snow anywhere here in the Capital.

How things change: Last weekend and early this week it was frigid at 28 F, and this weekend, while not warm, nice and temperate.

The Hunger Wall

...at Ujezd and

Kolors of Kutna Hora

Kutna Hora - Cathedral of St. Barbora

Kutna Hora is a town about 70 km (44 miles) east of Prague. The town flourished during the 1300's due to the immense silver veins found under the city and in the vicinity. The town provided most of the silver for the coins circulating in Europe at the time and was quite wealthy. Due to this wealth they decided to build a Cathedral to their patron saint of Mining; Saint Borbara.

This Cathedral is one of the most famous medieval cathedrals in the Czech Republic; the Church of Santa Barbara(Kostel sv. Barbora). The Church was designed by the same person who designed St. Vitus Cathedral of Prague Castle.

Town of Kutna hora

Sedlec

Off by train to Sedlec and to Kutna hora this morning, about 55 minutes East of Prague by Train.

Sedlec is like a small suburb of Kutna hora and has two very distinctive Churches, one a monestary and the other, an ossuary, or a church decorated with human bones from its adjacent graveyard...

The ossuary is located in the All Saints' Chapel which was built around 1400. The chapel is still surrounded by a functioning graveyard and if you take a careful look at the top of its towers(pix) you will see that that a "jolly roger", or a skull and crossbones, replaces the usual Christian cross. The ossuary itself dates from 1511 when a half-blind monk was given the task to gather the bones from the abolished graves and putting them in the crypt to make place for new "customers". He filled the basement of the Church and arranged them in shapes of crests, shields, and other sculptures.

Here is a link that will let you see inside the Ossuary... amazing.

http://www.virtualtravel.cz/kutna-hora/kostnice-sedlec/kostnice-sedlec.html

The pictures below are of the nearby Monastery, built in 1142.