Kutná Hora

Kutná Hora ( Kuttenberg in German) is a famous city thanks to the mines of money which left, the Moyen-âge, until the third of the European production and which allowed to finance the construction of churches and monuments and splendid houses registered on the Liste of the world heritage of UNESCO.

History

The historical sources mention at the 13th century Kutná Hora like an important center of extraction of the Minerai of money but as of the 10th century, in the strong Château close to Malina, the House of Slavníkovec strikes its sums of money money and it is extremely probable which the ore is drawn from the layer of Kutná Hora.

In 1142, a monastery cistercian is founded in Sedlec by Miroslav de Cimburg, noble of the entourage of Vladislav II. The fact that, contrary to the uses about Cîteaux, the monastery is established on an already cleared and cultivated ground, the fact that its head office is Valdsassen (the Rhineland-Palatinat) branch known as of the Abbaye of Morimond which deals with Métallurgie tends to prove that the mining activities then are already extremely developed.

At the end of the reign of the king Otakar II, the mining city takes the name of Cuthna Antiqua (Old Kutna). In 1290, bursts the “fever of the money” in Bohemia and it is per thousands that people flow, in majority German (see Drang nach Osten). A mining city is founded to shelter ten thousands of minors. The city obtains the statute of royal city and the tax exemptions.

In 1300, Venceslas II promulgates a royal code, the Jus levels montanorum , which determines the bases of the mining extraction and constitutes, inter alia, a kind of Labor regulation very in advance for the time. This code is also accompanied by a monetary Réforme which replaces the various sums of money struck by the dukes or the cities to create the Gros of Prague.

The expansion of the city and especially the character geostrategic of the money mines push the kings of Bohemia has to build fortifications “into hard” which replace the provisional palisades what makes it possible to push back the vain attempts at invasion of Albert of Austria in 1304 and 1307.

At the 15th century, the extraction of the ore starts to weaken but the city saw its golden age and the emperor Venceslas 1 {{er}} establishes there even his residence in the Italian Cour .

When the wars hussites burst, the Patricien S mainly German of the city line up with dimensions of the emperor Sigismond. To two thousand prisoners hussites are condemned to the forced labors in the mines. Unfortunately, Sigismond beats a retreat in front of the insurrectionists carried out by Jan Žižka which again takes, plunders and burns the city in 1422 then in 1424. The striking of the currency which was held in the enclosure of the Italian Cour is stopped, much corners of striking are lost and especially the mines are damaged.

Returned peace, the city bandages its wounds and hollow new mines apart from its enclosure. In 1448, the diet of the kingdom of Bohemia meets and elects there Georges de Poděbrady regent of the kingdom - he will be elected king one decade later. In 1471, it is with the turn of Vladislas Jagellon there to be elected king.

The decline of the city starts with second half of the 16th century when the mines start to dry up and are increasingly deeper and increasingly more difficult to exploit. It is also the time when the discovery of Americas has as a consequence the importation in mass of noble metals and a Inflation (depreciation of the value of the money) which weighs on the city. The War Thirty Year old sign the final adoption of the exploitation of the money mines.

Under protectorate Nazi, the mines take again their activity to extract from the Plomb and of the Zinc, this activity ends in 1991.

In 1995, Kutná Hora and the monastery close to Sedlec are registered with the inventory of the world cultural heritage of UNESCO. The city also forms part of EUROMINT an association of the European mining cities.

Tourism

  • Collégiale Saint-Jacob
  • Église Holy-Bores, started in 1388 with Jan Parléř, the son of Peter Parler, completed in 1905
  • royal Château said " Court italienne"
  • Cloister of the Ursulines (1735) by Kilian Ignace Dientzenhofer
  • College Jesuit
  • Fountain of stone
  • Stone-built house
  • Vault Corpus-Christi
  • Saint-Jean-Népomucène Church by František Maxmilian Kaňka
  • votive Column of the plague
In Sedlec:

Random links:Space Hulk | Izô Okada | Julien Faurois | Urban growth | Contessa Entellina rosso | Bes_(pièce_de_monnaie)