Kutná Hora

Kutná Hora, called Kuttenberg in German, is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic, about 52 kilometres east of Prague, with roughly 22,000 inhabitants. Its history is bound to silver mining: silver began to be mined in 1260 near the Cistercian Sedlec Abbey, founded in 1142, and the first mention of the town under its Latin name Mons Cuthna dates from 1289. Around 1300 it became the seat of the central mint of the Czech lands, where Prague groschen were struck, and it grew into the second most important town of the Kingdom of Bohemia after Prague. The Hussites burned Sedlec Abbey in 1421, and the Decree of Kutná Hora was signed in the town in 1409. The historic centre, including Sedlec Abbey and the Sedlec Ossuary, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 and is a major tourist destination, while local industry includes tobacco products and electrical engineering.