Emauzy Monastery

History

Emauzy Monastery

The Benedictine Abbey was established in the 14th century in a high gothic style. The most valuable monument preserved in the cloister is a series of wall paintings with themes from the Old and New Testaments; the so-called Emauzy Cycle from the second quarter of the 14th century. The community currently consists of three members, who inhabit the smaller part of the complex; the Order rents out the rest of the monastery as office space, occasionally for social events, conferences, etc. The Abbey in Emauzy can be visited throughout the year, with restricted opening hours during winter due to the light conditions in the cloister. The tours are not organized, visitors receive a guided tour text (available in various language versions) and is free to enter and walk around the monastery. The monastery garden is partly accessible via the entrance from Pod Slovany Street, however this is not in character a public park.

Autor: Klára Simandlová

History: The monastery was established in 1347 by King, and subsequently emperor, Charles IV; the completed buildings were ceremonially consecrated on Easter Monday 1372. The reading from the Gospel about the meeting of Christ with his prentices in Emauzy, which is connected to this event, led to the later given name “In Emauzy”, or “Emauzy” for short. The Benedictines from Croatia settled in the monastery, having been invited by the monarch to recreate in Bohemia the tradition of church service in the Slavic language. While translating and copying books they used the Glagolitic script, typical for the time. During the Hussite movement the monastery escaped destruction, apparently as a result of its extraordinaryposition in religious life; even the only male Utraquistic monastery was establish at Emauzy. The re-Catholicization occurred at the end of the 16^th century.

In 1635 Emperor Ferdinand III brought to Emauzy Benedictines from Spanish Montserrat. Under their administration the monastery was rebuilt in the baroque style. The Spanish Benedictines brought to Emauzy the cult of the Virgin of Montserrat.

In 1880 the monastery was acquired by the Benedictine congregation of Beuron, which had been forced to leave Germany because of Bismarck’s anti-clerical campaign. Against the background of this congregation an exclusive form of ecclesiastical art, the so-called Beuron Art School, developed. Beuron artists decorated the interiors of the monastery anew and simultaneously a reconstruction of the buildings in a historical spirit was to take place.

The monastery was dissolved during the Nazi occupation, the Abbot together with several monks were interned in a concentration camp. The monastery was almost destroyed by an Anglo-American bombing raid in February 1945. Religious institutions in Czechoslovakia were abolished in 1950 and the buildings were adapted to their new scientific and healthcare use. The Benedictine Order returned to Emauzy in 1990 when was the monastery given back to the Order in restitution. A regular church service is held in the monastery church, consecrated in 2003.