Section II: Summary of the Periodic Report on the State of Conservation

State of Conservation of World Heritage Properties in Europe SECTION II Hora is the result of a complex evolution, in terms of both urban development and architecture. With CZECH REPUBLIC its boundaries clearly demarcated, the town’s setting in the surrounding landscape results in an exceptional appeal of the historical centre’s Kutna Hora: Historical Town panorama. The Sedlec Cathedral, the oldest in Centre with the Church of St Bohemia, is an architectural treasure located on the Barbara and the Cathedral of Our grounds of the former monastery. Lady at Sedlec (i) Reasons for which the property is considered to meet one or more criteria posed on world heritage: Brief description Re Article 24 para (i) of the UNESCO directives, the Kutná Hora developed as a result of the exploitation historical town of Kutná Hora was during the of the silver mines. In the 14th century it became a mediaeval period, from the early 14th century to the royal city endowed with monuments that first third of the 16th century, after Prague the symbolized its prosperity. The Church of St second most important centre of the Kingdom of Barbara, a jewel of the late Gothic period, and the Bohemia. This is apparent still today in the town’s Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec, which was exceptional wealth of historical architecture, restored in line with the Baroque taste of the early beginning with specimens of the Gothic style. The 18th century, were to influence the architecture of town’s ground plan attests to complex evolution. Its central Europe. These masterpieces today form agglomeration of architectures covering a wide part of a well-preserved medieval urban fabric with variety of types and styles forms an exceptionally some particularly fine private dwellings. imposing and compact whole. A good many buildings meet top European heritage standards, representing precious documents of architectural 1. Introduction history, above all covering the various phases of the Gothic and Baroque styles. The Sedlec Year(s) of Inscription 1995 Cathedral, the first of its kind to be built on Agency responsible for site management Bohemia’s territory, simultaneously exemplifies an early heritage preservation project linked moreover • Municipal Authority Kutná Hora with the first grandiose manifestation of Neo-Gothic Havlíčkovo náměstí 552 Baroque architecture. The interiors of many of the 28424 Kutná Hora town’s architectural monuments contain precious e-mail: [email protected] works of art including paintings, sculptures and Website: www.kutnahora.cz applied art objects. • The National Institute for the Protection and Re Article 24, para (ii), the panorama of historical Conservation of Monuments and Sites Kutná Hora, bordered on the south-western side by Valdštejnské náměstí 3 the imposing Cathedral of St. Barbara, ranks 11801 Praha1 alongside the most impressive sights of its kind. Of e-mail: [email protected] crucial relevance in that sense is the town’s Website: www.npu.cz concentration of its main monumental architectures above a marked rift in the terrain formed by the valley of the Vrchlice brook. Kutná Hora’s 2. Statement of Significance architecture of the Jagiellonian era (1471 - 1526) constitutes an important link in the evolution of the Inscription Criteria C (ii), (iv) late Gothic style in Europe. The Cathedral of St. Barbara represents a unique work of cathedral Justification provided by the State Party architecture whose construction stretched over a The inner historical town of Kutná Hora within the period from the late 14th through the first half of the limits of the urban heritage reserve, plus the 16th centuries, Benedikt Ried’s share in the Convent Church of the former Cistercian Monastery building of St. Barbara’s was broadly echoed in at Sedlec as part of the urban agglomeration of terms of influence throughout Central Europe. Kutná Hora, which are being suggested for The Sedlec Cathedral is a living document of the inclusion in the World Heritage List, meet the brilliance attained by Cistercian architecture at the criteria of UNESCO directives in the sense of turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, as well as Article 29 para (ii). The historical centre of Kutná testimony to an early heritage conservation project State of Conservation of World Heritage Properties in Europe SECTION II carried out at the turn of the 17th and 18th historical urban housing compounds anywhere else centuries, and the first monumental-scale example in the Czech Republic. Of particular interest are of Gothic-style Baroque architecture designed by their Mediaeval vaulted interiors, Thanks Giovanni Santini. exclusively to the institution of the urban heritage reserve in Kutná Hora have these objects been Re Article 24, para (iii), the historical centre of protected from the perils of utilitarian adaptation. Kutná Hora is literally permeated with evidence of Kutná Hora’s historical residential complex amounts the long-vanished Mediaeval silver mining industry. to an exquisite document of the housing conditions At the time of their inception and Mediaeval of the town’s inhabitants in its heyday as the silver- operation, the town’s mines ranked alongside the mining centre of the realm during the 15th and 16th world’s largest. In all, those early compounds, centuries. which were centred around a pit called Osel, occupied an area of several square kilometres, Re Article 24, para (vi), Kutná Hora is a town of reaching as deep as 450 metres under the surface. great historical renown. It was there that King The most interesting surviving remnant of Wenceslas II launched a coinage reform which mediaeval mining is St. George’s Gallery whose introduced the Prague groschen, a unit which was 250-metre-long section is open to visitors, as part of to stay in existence for a long time as one of the installations of the Kutná Hora Museum. The Europe’s most prestigious currencies and which historical mines are protected under Government laid foundations to the immense wealth of Decree on Heritage Reserve, of 1961. Bohemia’s kings, the realm as a whole and the town of Kutná Hora in particular. The Kutná Hora Apart from the historical mines, the whole area of coinage reform was doubtless directly linked with the town constitutes a living depository of material Bohemia’s short-term acquisition of the Kingdom of evidence of earlier settlement including remains of Poland and, shortly thereafter, the Kingdom of buildings, largely in the form of Gothic stone cellars Hungary. underneath Kutná Hors’s gardens and public grounds. The area occupied by Kutná Hora Unparalleled anywhere else in Western deserves a priority archaeological rating. Christendom has been the status of the grand Anticipated future surveys are likely to unearth Cathedral of St. Barbara, in that it was set up several ruined Romanesque churches, notably without a specific ecclesiastic function, purely as a’ underneath the Sedlec Cathedral, the site of the monument to the town’s endeavour for the supreme foundations of the original convent church dating manifestation of its artistic and cultural aspirations. from the second third of the 12th century. The town played an important historical role during Re Article 24, para (iv), located within the borders the Hussite Wars, and was throughout the Middle of the historical town and in its proximity are two Ages one of the foremost centres of art in the monumental cathedrals, both of which are of Kingdom of Bohemia. On the whole, Kutná Hora exceptional interest in terms of both ground-plan can be ranked as Bohemia’s second most concept and architectural design. The Cathedral of important historical centre, immediately after St. Barbara is the product of gradual, highly varied Prague. dynamic evolution that lasted from the late 14th century until the first half of the 16th century, As provided in ICOMOS evaluation featuring highly remarkable vaulting systems and That this property be inscribed on the World an interior furnished with an immense wealth of art Heritage List on the basis of criteria (ii) and (iv): objects. The Sedlec Cathedral has its most impressive feature in its blend of the original In its urban fabric and its buildings Kutná Hora architectural conception dating from the turn of the constitutes an outstanding example of a medieval 13th and 14th centuries, and elements town whose wealth and prosperity was based on its supplemented during a major restoration and silver mines. As a result it was endowed with many redesigning project carried out during the high buildings of high architectural and artistic quality, Baroque era. Beyond that, Kutná Hora boasts an notably the Church of St Barbara, which had a imposing number of architecturally varied and profound influence on subsequent developments in interesting smaller churches, public buildings and the architecture of central Europe. Its stock of well merchant houses, most of which date from the late conserved domestic buildings is also of great Gothic period and feature high-Baroque significance, since they illustrate the social and adaptations. economic parameters that distinguish settlements of this kind exceptionally well. Re Article 24, para (v), Kutná Hora’s late-Gothic merchant houses are superior in value to similar State of Conservation of World Heritage Properties in Europe SECTION II Committee Decision • The protection arrangements are considered sufficiently effective The Committee decided to inscribe the site under criteria (ii) and (iv) as an outstanding example of the medieval town whose wealth and prosperity 4. Management was based on its silver mines. The Church of Saint Use of site/property Barbara and other buildings were underlined as having particular architectural and artistic quality • Urban centre, religious use, visitor attraction and as having had a profound influence on Management /Administrative Body subsequent developments in the architecture of • Plans to establish a steering group in 2006 Central Europe.

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