History

The queenly convent in Teplice was founded by the second Queen of Bohemia, Judith of Thuringia, around the year 1160. Written sources more likely only started to mention the convent after the end of the  13^th century (1278), the year of its devastation. Following this  the convent was in a state of financial distress for half a century. The spiritual administration of the convent was guaranteed by a male monastery from nearby Postoloprty.

The queenly founder, unlike many of her predecessors, managed to come out of anonymity. She actively participated in the founding achievements of her husband Vladislav II, she had her own butler and she is depicted on two coins. After her husband's death she disappeared from  written reports and thus  the exact date of her death is clear (in the obituaries from Dolany, Olomouc and Horní Slezsko  talk is of September 9 or 10). In 1954, the remains of an unknown woman were taken from the tomb in the northern side chapel of the Basilica. These remains were thought to have belonged to Judith, but the author of the research Antonín Hejna himself later adjusted this belief. Although the Chronicle of Pulkava from 1374 talks about the queen being buried here,  written reports on the Queen’s return  to Bohemia do not exist. Emanuel Vlček, who conducted  anthropological research into the a Judith's lleged skull, believes that the tomb in the chapel is really her final resting place (of course, this belief has to be taken with a degree of caution as  no relevant evidence exists).

The convent began to prosper during the reign of Charles IV, mainly due to capable abbesses Anna (from 1356 to 1370) and Margaret (1385-1414). It is interesting that equally during the Hussite wars was the convent ravaged despite the Hussite attack of 1421. In 1426 the convent was attacked and devastated by the Catholic army in retaliation for a previously alleged truce concluded with heretics. There is only a little known about the extent of the damage, but the convent probably persisted until 1435, when the newly elected abbess of Eliška from Doubravice wrote a letter, from which it follows that Benedictine nuns from Teplice were at that time absolutely penniless and in exile. The Bartoška chronicle  from Drahovice states that in 1435 Jakoubek of Vřesovice held, among other things, the city of Teplice. In November 1437 he and his future heirs were noted to have given the goods of the convent by King Sigismund. The nuns left  and most probably went to the Monastery of St. George at Prague Castle.

After the end of the Hussite Wars, the former convent buildings were reconstructed into a secular fortified residence, which appears in the sources as a "castle" or "fortress". The rights of the convent finally expired in 1512 when the manor house in Teplice changed into an autonomous manor.