Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the Benedictine monastery of Kladruby near Stříbra in the Tachovsk region, August 12, 2020.
Kladruby (Tachovsk Region) – In the Kladruby monastery, the restoration of the area and the modification of the exhibits have been completed. The project called Life in Order lasted 2.5 years and cost 165 million CZK, it was supported by the European IROP program. It includes the entire building of the old convent, the first and second above-ground floors of the new convent and the Garden of Eden. From April 1, it will offer two new sightseeing routes. “Monastery” is focused on the daily life of the monks, and “castle” follows the fate of the monastery in the 19th and 20th centuries as well as the fate of the new owners, the princely family of Windischgrätz. Markéta Slabová, spokeswoman for the regional office of the National Monuments Institute (NPÚ), told ČTK. The celebration of the end of the renovation will be on March 16.
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“The monastery sightseeing route will also include a unique archaeological find – the remains of a brewery and the newly reconstructed paradise courtyard, where different types of monastery gardens will be presented through diverse plantings,” she said.
The monument, founded in 1115 by Prince Vladislav I, is a former Benedictine monastery above the Úhlavka river. The dominant feature is the 86-meter-long Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, rebuilt by the famous Czech architect Jan Blažej Santini Aichel in the Baroque Gothic style. Its dome at a height of 46 meters is topped with a gilded Marian crown. The second most important building in the area is the New Convent building by Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer. In 1421 the monastery was demolished by the Hussites, it was restored in its entirety in the 1st to 2nd third of the 18th century. For centuries, the monastery was an important religious, economic and cultural center of the area.
The main tour shows the daily life of the monks, their accommodation, meals, spiritual life, work and rest in 13 rooms, in the Paradise courtyard and in the original interior church. It includes ambit corridors, a winter refectory and a changing room, monks' cells, a monastic fraternity (monks' hall) containing four stations dedicated to time measurement, astronomy and cartography, bookbinding and the cultivation of herbs and their use, the novice master's study, the novitiate's chapel and classroom, the Old Convent's heavenly courtyard and the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
The second circuit presents the European-famous Windischgrätz family in three new rooms. It introduces the history of the family, the revolutionary year 1848, the library and the fate of the monastery in the first half of the 20th century.
Kládruby Monastery was visited by 11,300 people last season until October 30, compared to less than 9,000 a year earlier. In the pre-covid year In 2019, there were 13,200.
