Week Nine: Bohemia

For our last week of the program our whole group traveled around Bohemia. We stayed one night in Litomyšl, one night in Kutna Hora, and two nights in Cesky Krumlov.  

When we were in Litomyšl we toured a church that was there. The church sat empty for many years when the Czech Republic was under communist control. After the communists left the people of the town decided they wanted to restore the church so they could keep using it. Now the church is used as more of a multipurpose building than a church. There is a photo gallery and a children's museam in the upstairs and a stage for concerts downstairs.  Although it seemed like an old city to us, Litomyšl is concidered a modern city for the Czech Republic.  Instead of having a big square in the center of the city, there was just a main street that had a lot of shops on it. 

When we got to Kutna Hora the first thing we did was stop at an old church. This church was different than any church we've ever been to because the church was made of bones.  The reason why they made the church from bones was because they ran out of places to bury people when they died, so they dug everyone up and decorated the church with their bodies. There normally is a big chandelier hanging in the center of the church that has everything bone in the body, but unfortunately it wasn't in the church because it was taken out for restoration. 

There was another church in town that we went to see. Construction started when the city was very wealthy because of the silver mines in the town. Eventually between the decrease in the value of silver and the mine running out of silver, the town became very poor. Since there was no more money, they were unable to finish the church all the way so they just put up a wooden wall on one side to close it off. Many years later they replaced the wooden wall with a stone wall to match the rest of the church, but it was never built as big as it was  originally designed to be.  

Cesky Krumlov was the final town we went to, and my favorite. The town reminded me a lot of Venice without the water, because all of the buildings looked very similar. We went into an old theater that they used to have plays in. It was one of two European theatres that has all of the original pieces that it had when it was being used. We went rafting on our last full day there and that was a lot of fun too.

I'm on the road now and don't have access to a computer, so the pictures will just have to wait for those until I can get back on my cumputer!