Kladruby Monastery

The Kladruby Monastery was founded around the year 1008 by Duke Vladislaus I to support the then undeveloped territory of western Bohemia. Due to its favourable location on the busy market road between Prague and Nurnberg, the monastery enjoyed substantial support from rulers of the Přemyslid dynasty and in the 13^th century was one of the richest monasteries in Bohemia. In the late 14^th century, King Wenceslaus planned to use it as the seat of the intended Western-Bohemian diocese, but his plan was never carried out due to conflicts with the archbishop Jan of Jenštejn. The monastery’s prosperous era ended with the advent of the Hussite War, during which it was repeatedly plundered. More devastation and pillaging awaited it in the Thirty Years’ War. The entire complex was extensively rebuilt by the Benedictine monks only in the 18^th century. The monastery church was rebuilt between 1711 and 1725 by Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel, while the convent buildings were built by another prominent architect of Czech Baroque – Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer. In 1785, the monastery was abolished by Emperor Joseph II and used by the Windischgrätz family as a brewery, library and the family seat. After it was nationalised by the Czechoslovak state in 1948, it was used by the Ministry of Agriculture and it was not until the 1960s that the devastated complex was gradually repaired.

The monastery Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary, Saint Wolfgang and Saint Benedict is the third largest church in the Czech Republic and an exquisite example of the specific Santini style, known as Baroque Gothic. The reference to Gothic architecture was the Benedictine monks’ declaration of the century-old tradition of the order in Bohemia, a reminder of the antiquity of the church itself and a symbolic link with the tradition of faith from the era before the advent of the “heretical” Hussite movement. The original Romanesque three-nave basilica with a transept was complemented from the outside by Santini with a number of Gothic elements and made it six metres shorter. The crossing, now moved to the centre of the longitudinal axis of the church, was covered with a grandiose dome, decorated with a crown symbolising Virgin Mary as the Queen of Heavens. He thus created an impressive new feature dominating the whole edifice. The eastern side of the church ends in a unique triple apse with star vaults representing the Benedictine cross. The use of light and Gothic decorations in the interior of the triple nave is exceptional. Santini’s design also includes a part of the internal furnishing: the altars, choir stalls, the pulpit, the confessional and the organ case. The monastery convent built by Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer is a grandiose four-wing building with two floors, surrounding the atrium. On the austere façade, only the richly decorated eastern part, facing the entrance gate to the monastery complex, stands out.