Mountains of silver

This is an evening view of the apse of the 14^th C. church of St. Barbara in Kutna Hora (Bohemia, Czech Republic). With its wealth of sculptures, gargoyles and flying buttresses, the building is regarded as one of the jewels of gothic architecture in central Europe and its construction was financed by the miners working in the silver mines surrounding it. In the high medieval period, Kutna Hora possessed the wealthiest and deepest silver mines in the whole of Europe. Deposits of silver and copper where discovered here at the turn of the 12^th and 13^th C. by the monks from the nearby Cistercian monastery in Sedlec and it was at their initiative that the first mines were established on the site. Soon however, it became evident that the wealth of the discovered resources exceeds expectations. Kutna Hora thus became a royal town where bohemian royal mint was located and specialist craftsmen, engineers and lawmakers were called from Italy to formulate legal codes regulating the mining restrictions and the rules under which profits were shared. Tons of silver were extracted each year and according to surviving documents, by the 14^th C. one of the mines, named ‘the donkey’ (in rough translation) reached the depth of 500 meters (almost 550 yards) and became the deepest medieval mine in the world. The silver of Kutna Hora was valued across Europe and had impact on the coinage of all mayor medieval Kingdoms including France, Hungary, Poland or Denmark.

At the heart of the city’s life were the guilds, or associations, of miners who worked daily hundreds of meters underground with nothing more than mere candles for light. Although the mining methods were advanced for the time; for example water was pumped out of the underground corridors quickly, ventilation and circulation of air was ensured and horse powered cranes were capable of lifting tons of rock from beneath, much of the work was still carried by hand. The church of St. Barbara, who until today is considered a patron saint of miners, was a symbol of the medieval city’s identity and the struggle of local miners for autonomy against the dominance of the Bohemian kings and queens as well as the Cistercian monks who all competed for their share of the mines’ profits. Though never completed and smaller than the original design (the mines were mostly exhausted by the 16^th C.) it is still a reminder of the times when Kutna Hora was a city of silver.

Ps. The low building perched on the edge of the slope is the gothic Corpus Christi chapel, the post medieval white building to the right is the Jesuit college.