Lost Kutná Hora

Historical sources in pictures of the town

Welcome to our sites focused on the historical sources in pictures of the town of Kutná Hora and a former Cistercian monastery in Sedlec. The digital archive classified by the buildings, houses and streets as well as chronologically according to the date of origin of individual sources forms the main content of these sites. You will find here historical photography, replicas of oil paintings, graphics and frescos (mural paintings), which document the disappeared shape of the town and of the monastery in Sedlec from the 17th to the 20th century. This vast and unique collection of more than 1000 reproductions, was collected from sixteen public or private collections and ancient monuments. The main aim of our project is the digitalisation and access to this collection for further studies or research. The archive will be regularly completed with accessions acquired during the research of further collections.

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Italian Court

The original source in pictures is necessary to recognise the historical shape of this building and its construction devellopement. Files in our archive may be classified in two sections. The first one is focused on the period before the reconstruction and the files may chronologically range from the first half till 1893, and there include oil paintings of Josef Hilbert, the first photography of Andreas Groll or a large file of photography by Jindřich Dittrich. The second section is focused on photography of the period of the reconstruction of the Italian Court in 1893-1899 taken by Josef Steffel, Oldrich Jelínek or Vyborný brothers.

St. Barbara Cathedral

The cathedral represents a unique example of an urban ecclesiastical construction, on which was focused maximal attention of the patriciate of the town. Paradoxically it had to be situated behind the town wall. This situation was caused mainly by the intention to separate the spiritual administration of the town from the Sedlec monastery. Regarding the fact that the St. Barbara Cathedral is one of the most important cathedral building in Europe, it attracted many artists and photographers in the past. The pictorial sources of the cathedral showing the interior and exterior parts of the cathedral -before and during the restoration form the largest collection of our digital archive.

General views

The first photographical approaches of the town are still in many aspects close to pictured vistas. The photographers used to choose the same places as the vista artists, i.e.the areas Na Rovinách, Karlov,or the meadows below Kank. The picures taken rom the church towers or the first aerial views of the town from 1931 belong to the most important ones in later period. Kutna Hora has the second eldest photography fund in Bohemia.

St. James church

We may say the contemporary look of the church has not been changed for more than two hundred years. The oil paintings, graphics and historic photography in our archive show the church from all of his parts, thanks to its dominant location in the town panorama. This church hasn´t been touched by the wave of reconstruction of the sights in Kutna Hora at the end of the 19thcentury and as the last one it has been waiting for its renovation until the end of the WW II. All the renovation was carefully recorded in a huge amount of pictures from which we introduce here just a small part at the moment.

News and Updates

29^th september 2010

3rd Accessions in our digital archive: St. Barbara Cathedral

See these twelve photos showing the St. Barbara Cathedral´s model. The historical model (1861 - 1865) come from Czech Museum of Silver in Kutná Hora.

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30^th june 2010

2nd Accessions in our digital archive: Streets and squares

See these twelve photos showing the streets and squares. Historical pictures come from the State regional archive in Kutná Hora and private collection.

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14^th april 2010

Come and see the last guided tour of the exhibition

On April, 18. 2010, the last day of the exhibition, there will be two guided tours of the exhibition organised as a part of the International Day for Monuments and Sites. The tours take will start at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. in Hradek in Kutná Hora and will be accompanied by author´s interpretation.
Come and take part in the guided tour of the exhibition.

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