Na Slovanech (Emmanus Monastary)

The Emmaus Monastery, or Na Slovanech as it was called in the Middle Ages, was established by Charles IV in 1347. At the time, it was the only Benedictine monastery in Bohemia and Slavic Europe and was a center of learning, art and Slavic culture.

In the cloisters you can find the 85 Gothic wall paintings that form parallels with the Old and New Testaments, with the Church of the Virgin Mary painted in the Beuron style. The cloisters also contain original frescoes with Pagan symbolism from the 14th century. Two towers were added in the 17th and 18th centuries when the monastery was reconstructed in the Baroque style, but they no longer stand.

Charles IV gave to the monastery the manuscript Reims Gospel, which was most likely lost at the time of the Hussite Wars and now is part of the Reims Cathedral treasury in France.

During WWII, the monastery was under the control of the Gestapo and the monks residing there were sent to the Dachau concentration camp. During a US air raid in February 1945, the building and vaults were destroyed. The two towers mentioned earlier were destroyed in this raid and the monastery was rebuilt with the iconic white steeples in the 1960s. In 1990, the monastery was finally returned to the Benedictine order and is now administered by three monks.

If you’d like to learn more, you can enter the monastery for 90 CZK, from 11:00 to 16:00 or 17:00, depending on the time of year.

Turn around and head back to the main street. Take a right, and you will see our next stop across the street.

Hours:

• Nov – Apr, Mon – Fri, 11-16

• May – Oct, Mon – Sat, 11-17

Entrance Fee: 90 CZK