Brevnov Monastery
Benedictus Nursian founded first west European order of monks.
His lifework became a basis for all western orders of monks. One
of his thesis was “ora et labora” which means prey
and work, that today is basic rule of many orders. Brevnov monastery
was found in 993 when king Boleslav II and bishop Vojtech met
on fountain near Prague and decided to build monastery to that
place.
The monastery was destroyed many times on wartime. For example
famous battle of White Mountain was very near the monastery. The
current monastery is from 18th century and represents baroque
style. During communist era in 1948-1989 Brevnov monastery was
used as a headquarter of secret police. There were no monks and
they couldn’t work elsewhere because Benedict order requires
community and those times it was impossible.
There are 13 monks at the moment in Brevnov monastery. Each of
them works according their abilities. Main occupations of the
monastery are tourism and some publishing. The church and garden
of monastery are open on weekends. During excavations in 1969
they revealed the old Romanesque crypt underneath current church
and some stable buildings. The crypt is open for public but stables
are covered with earth again so that they would preserve better.
Word monastery is in central European languages called often ‘klaster’,
which means closed place. Monasteries were former at least partially
closed from public. In Brevnov this area was the monks quarters
and garden but nowadays public is able to enter the garden.
More pictures from
monastery
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