Saint Barbara’s Cathedral, our third and last attraction on the combo ticket we bought at the Ossuary, is actually not a cathedral. It is a church built in style of a cathedral which is where the name is coming from and is at the edge of the downtown area to avoid conflict with the Sedlec Cathedral. It is one of the most famous Gothic churches in Czechia and an Unesco World Heritage Site so it is on our list to visit if in the area. It is quite impressive from outside, the construction started in 1388 but was not finished till 1905, typical of many medieval churches. We first visit the free cellar where a piano sits in the middle and children try their hand at music…
Entering the church takes longer than we expected. We already have tickets so we hope that there is a separate line to enter, but no, we have to wait in line with all the other tourists that buy tickets for the first time. Finally in we are impressed by the height of the roof, similarly to the Sedlec cathedral , it is much higher than we expected.
We explore the different details in the church, there are a few interesting altars and pulpits and some frescoes that depict life in the medieval mining town.
Not many frescoes are preserved in the magnificent cathedral so whenever we see one we stop to admire it and try to guess what they represented. This also allows us to sit down a bit and enjoy the much cooler air in the cathedral after our climb in the heat towards it.
The ceiling is quite beautiful we assume it is a mix of necessary support and Gothic embellishment and while looking up we notice that you can climb to an upper level, now we just have to find the stairs.
After a short search around the stairs are located and up we go. Again the stairs are not cramped as usual which is a nice bonus. From the top level we get some nice views and there is also a small exhibit about the cathedral and how it changed during the years.
More unexpectedly there is also a small balcony to the outside with some good views of a grand building a bit further away. We are quite high up already but there is still a bit to go to the top of the church which seems even higher somehow now that we climbed halfway.
Exiting we go once around the cathedral to take some photos with the sun at our back and then it is time to return to the downtown area to explore it a bit more thoroughly before returning to the train station.
