KUTNA HORA
- CZECH REPUBLIC |
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Kutná Hora (German: Kuttenberg) is a city of the Czech Republic in Bohemia, Central Bohemian Region. Population: 21,900.
Amongst its most important buildings are the Gothic five-naved Church of St. Barbara, begun in 1368, and the Cathedral of our Lady at Sedlec, which are also among the World Heritage Sites. The Italian Court, formerly a royal residence and mint, was built at the end of the 13th century, and the Gothic Stone Haus, which since 1902 serves as museum, contains one of the richest archives in the Republic.
There is also the famous Sedlec ossuary (Czech:
kostnice) in one of the city's suburbs.
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The town of Kutna Hora owes its origin to the silver mines, the existence of
which can be traced back to the first part of the 13th century. The city
developed with great rapidity, and at the outbreak of the Hussite Wars,
early in the 15th century, was next to Prague the most important in Bohemia,
having become the favourite residence of several of the Czech kings. It was
here that, on January 18, 1419, Wenceslaus IV signed the famous decree of
Kutna Hora, by which the Czech nation was given three votes in the elections
to the faculty of Prague University as against one for the three other "nations".
In 1420 the emperor Sigismund made the city the base for his unsuccessful
attack on the Taborites; Kutna Hora was taken by Jan Zizka, and after a
temporary reconciliation of the warring parties was burned by the imperial
troops in 1422, to prevent its falling again into the hands of the Taborites.
Zizka none the less took the place, and under Bohemian auspices it awoke to
a new period of prosperity. In 1541 the richest mine was hopelessly flooded;
in the insurrection of Bohemia against Ferdinand I the city lost all its
privileges; repeated visitations of the plague and the horrors of the Thirty
Years' War completed its ruin. Half-hearted attempts after the peace to
repair the ruined mines failed; the town became impoverished, and in 1770
was devastated by fire. The mines were abandoned at the end of the 18th
century. |
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