This was the parish church of the mining boom before St Barbara existed. Building began in the 1330s, when the silver was at its most productive, and it was completed in 1420 — the year the Hussite wars reached the town. It is the oldest stone church in Kutná Hora and it stands on the shoulder of the hill just above the Italian Court, which is not an accident: church, mint and market are the same block.
The tower is about 80 m and can be seen from the far side of the valley. There is only one of it. The design called for a pair, and the second was never raised; the explanation you will hear locally is that the ground was too thoroughly undermined by shafts to carry the weight. Whether or not that is the whole story, it is the right story for this town — the church is standing on the reason it was built.
Inside, the fabric is Gothic and the furnishing is Baroque. There are late-Gothic wall paintings and 15th-century work, and the altarpieces include canvases by Petr Brandl, the best Bohemian painter of the early 18th century. The church came through a major restoration between 2019 and 2022, so what you see is in unusually good condition for a parish church that charges nothing.
And it charges nothing: entry is free, with a printed guide or an audio guide provided, and guided commentary can be arranged with the parish. The catch is the calendar. Outside the season it opens only Friday to Sunday, in October and May only Wednesday to Sunday, in June and September Tuesday to Sunday, and daily only in July and August — always with a lunch break from 12:30 to 13:00, and it shuts at 15:30 rather than 17:00 in the winter months. Services and weddings close it without notice. The parish information centre by St Barbara’s will tell you on the day.
