The origins of the cathedral lie hidden in bulls, i.e. papal charters; the first one of 1381 was de facto a building permit while the last one recognised the hierarchical position of a parochial church in 1403. Construction works were initiated in 1388 just behind the town walls on a rocky cliff with a magnificent view over the valley of the Vrchlice River, outcrops of the richest silver mines and an old chapel dedicated to St. Barbara, the patron saint of miners. The first architect was a member of the Parler family – Peter Parler was the main architect of St. Vitus’ Cathedral in Prague Castle and his son Jan got married in Kutná Hora in 1389. Since the very beginning, the Kutná Hora sandstone from local quarries became the main construction material.
Works on the cathedral were interrupted for a long time by the Hussite Wars and were not resumed until 1480s when the wealthy patriciate charged local stonemason Master Hanuš to carry on the construction according to original plans by Parler. Hanuš completed the cross-vaulted aisles, ring of chapels around the presbytery and both wings of the planned transverse nave. The original, conservative methods, however, did not satisfy the ideas of contemporary building authorities, and thus in 1489, they charged Matyas Rejsek, author of the Powder Tower in Prague, to take up the job. Rejsek began to erect the outer supporting system, ambo ambulatory around the presbytery and completed the vaulting of the chancel in 1499. His style features sense of detail and small decorative elements: a typical example being grotesque statues on the outside of the cathedral. Rejsek died in 1506, but the works continued according to his plans. Major redesign came in 1512, when the town council contracted Benedikt Ried, renowned master builder of Prague Castle, who immediately decided to vault the main nave. His design of the vault created a great hall over the original five-aisled ground plan, in fact a new church with own altars visually separated from the ground level part. Huge glass walls are designed to refract as much light into the interior as possible, creating the unearthly impression of eternal enlightening. The vault is topped by four- and six-point stars with a complicated rib tracery. Ried died in 1534, however, works were carried out according to his projects at somewhat slower rate until 1558, when the town authorities decided to definitely wind up the construction due to lack of finance.
Most of interior decorations of St. Barbara’s Cathedral date from the late Gothic period. Rejsek’s workshop gave birth to the chancel, sanctuary and presbytery banister with the initials of “W” and “L”, a reminder of Jagello sovereigns. Choir benches were made by carver Jakub Nymburský between 1480 and 1490. The masterpiece of fine arts are fresco decorations of the chapels, depicting religious motifs as well as scenes inspired by mining of silver and minting of coins. Such themes genuinely characterize the atmosphere of Kutná Hora – hard labour, immense wealth and humility materialized in the eternal house of God. The most exquisite example of late Gothic painting are the decorations of the Smíšek’s Chapel. Michal Smíšek of Vrchoviště, a typical representative of local nobility, was in charge of construction management at that time and his life story would be a concentrated history of all people, elevated to noble status due to their wealth. His opulent struggle for dignity led to his buying of the chapel in 1485 and having it decorated according to his will. The main motif of the fresco is a votive scene, depicting probably Michal Smíšek himself with his family by the altar. Other motifs include Queen of Thebes Coming to Solomon, Traian’s Trial and Sibyl of Tiburt. The chapel vault is decorated by a band of angels. The chapel was designed and decorated to serve as a burial chapel and Michal Smíšek was entombed there indeed in 1511. The author of the paintings is not known; certain is his inspiration by Dutch masters and he probably painted the frescoes in the Sankturinovský house as well. The adjacent chapel was purchased by the winchers’ guild in 1493. The artistic quality of the decorations is somewhat lower, but its enormous value lies in the depiction of labour scenes. That is also the case of the Minter’s Chapel with motifs inspired by the minting of coins.
Another stage of the cathedral’s history began along with the coming of the Jesuits in 1626. At that time the famous sanctuary was in quite a miserable shape with many backlogs and traces of past wars. Baroque reconstructions carried out by the Jesuits involved mainly the chancel and the Chapel of St. Franz Xaverius. In the chapel, there is a painting by Heintsch depicting Xaverius, the first Jesuit missionary, baptising a pagan nobleman in India. Supplementing the altar of St. Franz Xaverius, a new altar was installed in the front of the northern nave, dedicated to St. Ignatius of Loyola and carrying the monumental fresco of Conversion of St. Ignatius in the Loyola Castle by Jan Karel Kovář from 1746. The appearance of the cathedral was changed significantly by the new saddle roof replacing the original tent roof and by the gallery connecting St. Barbara’s with the new Jesuit College. Upon the abolishment of the Jesuit order, the cathedral went into the hands of the National Religious Fund and started to decay. It has survived until the present day only thanks to a major restoration carried out by Lábler and Mocker, Czech most important puristic architects, at the turn of the 20th century; they restored the original tent roof, extended the church by one vault field, substituted the provisional western wall by the new neo-Gothic front façade and made alterations of the interior, too. Creaky Baroque organ was substituted by a new instrument from the local organ workshop of Jan Tuček. The interior is dominated by the main altar dating from 1901 – 1905 that was made according to Gothic plans described in the historic memoirs “Paměti Jana Kořínka”. The neo-Gothic appearance is further enhanced by stained-glass windows made by František Urban, depicting scenes from the history of Kutná Hora and the Czech kingdom and reminding of those who contributed to the restoration; one of the windows is for example a remembrance of the visit of Emperor Franz Joseph I to Kutná Hora in 1906 and of his donation.