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Contacts
- Tel: +420 327 515 796, +420 775 363 938
- Email: info@khfarnost.cz
- Address: Barborská Street, Kutná Hora
Regular church services
The services at St Barbara’s Cathedral are held as follows:
- Every Sunday at 9 AM and 10:30 AM
- Every Lent Wednesday at 6 PM
- On Easter Day at 9 AM
- On the Feast of Corpus Christi at 9 AM
- On the Royal Silvering of Kutná Hora at 9:30 AM
- Every Advent Wednesday at 6 PM
- On Christmas Day at 9 AM
- On New Year’s Eve at 4 PM
You can find the current programme of church services here (Czech only).
Regular opening hours
- January and February daily 10 AM – 4 PM
- March daily 10 AM – 5 PM
- April - October daily 9 AM – 6 PM
- November and December* daily 10 AM – 5 PM
* the Cathedral is closed on 24th of December
When planning a visit to the Cathedral, please pay attention to the current exceptions to the opening hours.
Entrance fee in 2022
Touring circuit of the St Barbara’s Cathedral: Ground floor and the inner gallery on the upper floor of the Cathedral, the Corpus Christi Chapel
- Adults 160 CZK
- Seniors over 65 and students from 15 to 26 120 CZK
- Children from 6 to 15 and the disabled 50 CZK
- Children up to 6 0 CZK
Discounted triple ticket: Touring circuit of St Barbara’s Cathedral (including the inner galleries and the Corpus Christi Chapel), the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady and St John the Baptist and the Church of All Saints (ossuary) in Sedlec
- Adults 300 CZK
- Seniors over 65 and students from 15 to 26 230 CZK
- Children from 6 to 15 and the disabled 95 CZK
- Children up to 6 0 CZK
Other services
- Guided tour in English (booking required) 600 CZK
- If you are interested in visiting the Cathedral outside the regular opening hours, please contact us for a quote.
- Barrier-free toilets can be found in the Information centre next to the Cathedral.
- Only the ground floor of the Cathedral is wheelchair accessible; the staircase to the inner gallery does not allow barrier-free access. Thank you for your understanding.
- If you are interested in holding a wedding ceremony, please contact us.
Renting and research activities
If you are interested in
- organizing a concert or another appropriate cultural event,
- filming a news report, a movie, a radio or television programme,
- taking professional photographs,
- looking for sources and inspiration for your sturdy or scientific work,
in the Cathedral, contact us at least two weeks in advance:
- Jaroslav Bouška
Email: jaroslav.bouska@khfarnost.cz
- Information centre at the st Barbara’s Cathedral
Tel: +420 327 515 796, +420 775 363 938
Email: info@khfarnost.cz
History
The Cathedral of St Barbara, a jewel of the Late Gothic period and one of the four cathedral-type buildings in Bohemia, was incribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List together with the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady and St John the Baptist and the historical centre of Kutná Hora.
The splendor of this structure is tangible testament to the fame and riches of the silver Kutná Hora as well as of the deep devotion of its creators. The cathedral is dedicated to Virgin Barbara, an early Christian martyr, invoked as a helper in need, an intercessor for a good death, and a patron of all who carry on a dangerous occupation, especially miners. And it was in fact miners who contributed the most to the medieval town‘s blossoming as well as to the construction of the cathedral, which they dedicated to their holy protectress.
The beginnings of the structure, which date back to the second half of the 14th century, are linked to Parler's famous building workshop. The activities of this workshop were supplemented by the work of many other ingenious artists and builders, including the famous Benedikt Ried, among others. He is the author of the so-called empora (an indoor gallery on the first floor of the cathedral), the design of the unmistakable tent roofs and, of course, the tracery vault over the cathedral’s main nave. The construction work had to be temporarily suspended in the mid-16th century when the silver ran out in Kutná Hora’s mines. The centuries that followed brought a wave of reconstruction work and replacement of the cathedral‘s fixtures, particularly in the Baroque style. The cathedral‘s present-day appearance dates back to the 19th and 20th centuries, when the church underwent an extensive regothisation and a total restoration.
The Cathedral of St Barbara is a diverse gallery of, in particular, rare Gothic frescoes and stone-cutting art, but all generations of artisans have left their mark here. The main nave is dominated by a Renaissance pulpit with baroque paneling. The learned and pious Jesuits equipped the cathedral with a number of Baroque altars, sculptures and paintings. Generous donors to the neo-Gothic renewal had stained glass installed in a large part of the windows at the start of the 20th century, on which the painter František Urban depicted a series of purely Christian motifs as well as the significant events of his time. In 2014, the latest artistic work: stained glass with a motif of St Agnes of Bohemia, which adorned the last clear window in the cathedral’s south nave, continued in this tradition.