KUTNÁ HORA
Activity 1:
Complete the text with suitable words.
1) Kutná Hora, once the most important town in the Czech Kingdom after Prague, has preserved its
_________________ character.
2) In Kutná Hora you will find houses, churches and other constructions built in the Gothic and LateGothic __________________, as well as buildings from the Renaissance or Baroque
__________________.
3) In the second half of the 13th century rich deposits of ____________________
were found in the territory of Sedlec monastery and reports of that soon attracted an
__________________ of miners from far and wide.
4) The rich ___________________of silver enabled King Wenceslaus II (ruling from 1278 to 1305) to
carry out a monetary reform by introducing a new means of payment - the Prague groshen. In 1300
he issued the famous mining regulations "Jus Regale Montanorum" and established the central royal
___________________ in the Italian Court in Kutná Hora.
5) In the 14th and 15th century Kutná Hora was a privileged royal town with great political importance.
It was at the Italian Court that, on January 18, 1409, Wenceslas IV _________________ the
important Kutná Hora Decree concerning Prague University, and in 1471 Wladislaus Jagiello was
elected King of Bohemia there.
6) There are a lot of ________________ in Kutná Hora, but probably the most famous is the Cathedral
of St. Barbara, the patroness of all the __________________.
Activity 2:
Read the descriptions of Kutná Hora sights and fill in the gaps with their names. Then match the
texts with the pictures.
1)_____________________________________________________________
This is a monumental piece of Gothic architecture. The construction started between 1380 and 1420 under
the patronage of the miners and under the supervision of the workshop of the Parléř family (other famous
builders were e.g. Matěj Rejsek - Prague Týn School, or Benedict Rejt - a royal architect).
In 1558 due to financial problems the construction was closed with a temporary wall instead of a lavish west
front.
Between 1866 and 1905 the building was restored and got its present look.
2) ____________________________________________________________
This Baroque building was constructed after the arrival of the Jesuits to Kutná Hora in the 17th century
according to the plans of an Italian architect Domenico Orsi. The Jesuits came to re-catholicize the Utraquist
town and needed a college to educate children and young people there.
The artificial terrace in front of the college was decorated with thirteen statues of saints by the Jesuit sculptor
František Baugut.
3) ____________________________________________________________
Originally it was a fortified guard building, part of the town fortification. The oldest record of this building
comes from 1312, when it was reconstructed as a residence of the royal officials. In 1490, the building was
bought and reconstructed by Jan Smíšek of Vrchoviště.
Nowadays the Czech Museum of Silver is located there, with exhibitions devoted to the city, mining and
processing of silver, and also the lifestyle of the Kutná Hora aristocracy. The museum is also responsible for
a medieval mine, which is undoubtedly an interesting attraction for tourists.
4) ____________________________________________________________
This construction was created in the workshop of the Jesuit sculptor František Baugut during 1714 - 1716 as
the expression of prayer to end the plague epidemic, which killed more than 6,000 people in the city.
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Gymnázium Jiřího Ortena, Jaselská 932, 284 80 Kutná Hora – ANGLICKÝ
JAZYK
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5) ____________________________________________________________
At the beginning of the 14th century, representative city churches were constructed in the neighbouring cities
of Kolín or Jihlava, and Kutná Hora felt the need for its own church too. Important patrician families together
with mining officials decided to build a stone church to better correspond to the importance of the city and
they contributed greatly to financing the project.
The construction was undertaken between 1330 and 1420. The original project was designed for a twotowered church. However, the second tower has never been completed. The only constructed tower
measures 86m and, according to it, the church is sometimes called Tall.
6) ____________________________________________________________
Originally it was a fortified castle on an important trading route called Haberská, connecting Bohemia and
Moravia.
The central mint was established there on the basis of the mint reform introduced by King Wenceslas II in
the summer of 1300. Following the merger of the 17 existing minor mints, this mint became the main source
of raw material and soon ranked among the most advanced mints in Western Europe.
In the years 1390 - 1400 King Wenceslas IV enlarged the building adding a wing with a palace, chapel and
tower, and made it a royal residence.
At the end of the 19th century it was reconstructed. At present, you can visit the royal treasury housing the
exhibition of the history of minting, the royal chapel, and the Renaissance town hall with two wall paintings
(Jan Hus + Wenceslas IV, the signing of Kutná Hora Decree, and Vladislaus Jagiello, the royal election).
7) ____________________________________________________________
This church was built in 1734 - 1753 by the successful Baroque master-builder František Maxmilián Kaňka,
who came from a nearby town of Horky near Chotusice. The late Baroque structure with features of Rococo
and Classicism also has an architecturally valuable interior decorated with stucco, frescos and marbling. The
subject of the frescos is derived from the legend of St. John of Nepomuk and are mostly the work of the
Silesian painter F. X. Palko.
8) ____________________________________________________________
Because of intense mining, Kutná Hora suffered lack of drinking water over the centuries. Water was brought
to the city in wooden pipes which emptied into reservoirs. In 1493 - 1495, a twelve-sided wall was built
around one of the reservoirs. The structure was built in Late Gothic style and has been attributed to Matěj
Rejsek workshop.
9) ____________________________________________________________
The monastic church located north-east of Kutná Hora was founded in about 1300, replacing a Romanesque
one. During the Hussite Wars it was destroyed and then re-built at the beginning of the 18th century by Jan
Santini Aichel in the Baroque style. It has a nave and four aisles, with a ring of seven chapels around the
presbytery. The interiors of the church are mostly Baroque, decorated with paintings by Petr Brandl, M. I.
Willmann and other artists. The latest restoration of the church took place in 2001.
10) ____________________________________________________________
This building is located in the middle of a picturesque cemetery in Sedlec. The cemetery was not capable to
take all victims of plague and Hussite wars and so the skeletons were deposited in the lower chapel. To use
bones as decorations was the idea of Schwarzenbergs, who bought the property in the early 18th century.
Activity 3:
Answer the questions:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
i)
j)
Which of the sights were constructed in the Gothic style and which in the Baroque style?
Why was the Plague Column built in Kutná Hora?
Where can you visit the Czech Museum of Silver?
What different functions has the Italian Court ever had?
Which two wall paintings can you see in the Italian Court?
Who was Ferdinand Maxmilián Kaňka?
What is another name for the Church of St. Jacob?
What was the purpose of the Stone Fountain?
Who was the author of the statues in front of Jesuit College?
When was the Cathedral of Our Lady destroyed?
©
Gymnázium Jiřího Ortena, Jaselská 932, 284 80 Kutná Hora – ANGLICKÝ
JAZYK
– Pracovní list