The “tiny” St. Barbara Church was supposed to be twice as big! / “Malicky” Chram Sv. Barbory mel byt 2x tak vetsi!

Not very far from Prague lies the mining town of Kutna Hora. It is definitely one of the shiniest gems of the Czech Republic and that is why it became the UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995. Thanks to the abundance of silver mines, the town became economically even more important than Prague in the 13th century. What really makes the Kutna Hora, however, is the Gothic-style, five-naved St. Barbara Church (Chram sv. Barbory) – one of the most famous churches in Central Europe. Peter Parler, one of the most known Czech architects of all times, started the construction in 1388. The building went very fast at first but when the Hussite Wars started in 1420 everything was put on hold and the temple ended up half-finished. Since the “roof” of the building was nonexistent, the common rainfall combined with the winter snow storms began to destroy the structure. Thanks to this “nature problem” together with the fact that the city of Kutna Hora was getting low on its silver, the town decided to prematurely finish the construction. According to the original plans the St. Barbara church was supposed to be twice as big as it is now! That is why one can notice a slight asymmetry of the building when looking at the architectural design from inside the church. After 500 long years the temple was finally finished in 1905. That doesn’t mean, however, that during this half-a-century “break” the church prayer meetings were on hold. So, where were the citizens of Kutna Hora meeting when the “bullets” were flying over their heads during the Hussite Wars or when it was raining or snowing and there was no roof to hide under? The meetings were moved underground!

Since the temple was created for God, the most magnificent pieces of this architectural beauty are “hidden” way up in the clouds . Only from a small plane or a really good set of binoculars can one see the detailed sculptures of chimerias, angels, bats, demons, frogs or little lambs with wings. One of those supporting pillars carries also a sculpture of a monkey holding an orange, which was actually the first official physical representation of this fruit in Czech.

Sources:

http://www.hrady.cz/index.php?OID=1447

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Barbara_Church

http://www.kutna-hora.net/barbora.php