2/ Cathedral in Sedlec

Legend has it that the Bishop of Olomouc, Jindřich Zdík, fell asleep here on his way to Prague and a bird flew into his mouth, which gave him the idea to found a monastery here. And because his head was folded on a horse saddle while he was sleeping, he called the place Sedlec...

Whether the story is true or not, it is a fact that the local Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist, together with the Church of All Saints, is the oldest part of Kutná Hora, and together with its historical center and the nearby Church of All Saints, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It was built between 1290 and 1320 and combines North French Gothic cathedral architecture with elements of German architecture of the time. The cathedral was a monastic church of the former Cistercian abbey, founded in 1142, which was the oldest abbey of this order in Bohemia.

Despite the fact that the cathedral was burnt down during the Hussite wars in the 15th century and only ruins remained, it was still monumental to such an extent that in 1681 it was named Splendissima Basilica, i.e. the most magnificent basilica.

At the end of the 17th century, Abbot Jindřich Snopek decided to rebuild the cathedral. He approached then the young architect Jan Blazej Santini-Aichel, who used his original style - Baroque Gothic.

The unique elements that Santini used here, which are definitely worth mentioning, are the self-supporting vaults, called Bohemian flats, which you can see on the ceilings of the side aisles and the self-supporting spiral staircase, which you can climb up to the gallery. From there, it is possible to walk through the accessible first attic to the nave of the west façade.

The destruction of the monasteries during the reforms of Joseph II in 1784 also affected the Sedlec monastery. The monastery buildings were converted into a tobacco factory and the cathedral was then used as a parish church.

In the interior, besides many exceptional artistic monuments (for example, paintings by Peter Brandl, Michael Leopold Willmann or Jan Kryštof Liška), you can also see one of the rarest jewels in Central Europe, which is the original Sedlec monstrance. It is one of the oldest surviving Gothic monstrances in the world.

There is also a cinema room in the cathedral where you can watch a ten-minute film about the history of the Sedlec monastery.