Today we visited the town of Kutna Hora. It is only about an hour east of Prague. We got to explore the town, we visited the bone church, saw St. Barbara’s Cathedral, and we got to tour a decommissioned medieval silver mine. The bone church was fascinating to me because it was shocking that someone would have the idea to do it in the first place but also because of how intricate the process must be to individually clean all of the bones and then construct them into towers and chandeliers.
We also were able to see St. Barbara’s Cathedral. This cathedral was massive and architecturally beautiful. The intricacies of the church and the sheer size of the building surely caused some engineering difficulties especially since construction began in 1388. It is very impressive that they were able to overcome the challenges that came with the project and build a beautiful church.
The silver mine was my favorite part of our trip yesterday. The silver mines were the reason that Kutna Hora became so wealthy in the medieval times so it was really cool to actually get the chance to see one. We went at least 20 meters underground into the mines. I could barely stand up in any section of the mine so I had to walk partially bent over the entire time. I had a lot of fun and it was really interesting to learn more about the history of the silver mine.
Swanson School of Engineering 