History

The monastery area has strong genius loci, points at which various spiritual and cultural currents met in the course of history. It is also a reflection of the architecture and art of the Romanesque, gothic, baroque periods right up to Neo-Renaissance classicism. One of the attractions are archaeological foundations of the laical church of Holy Cross from the 11^th century situated in the northern garden and the unfinished gothic church with its southern nave red sandstone high pillars . The baroque decoration of the  St. Procopius temple includes, among other things, the miraculous Amorous painting of St. Procopius and the relics, in the crypt,  of this patron saint of the Czech lands. The most beautiful area of the former convent is a gothic capitular chapel from the time of Emperor Charles IV with mural paintings celebrating the human motherhood of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary. The unique images are of the so-called Madonna of Sázava leading  a five-year-old or so baby Jesus by the hand with a pregnant Virgin Mary. The exhibition Staroslověnská Sázava with a number of medieval Slavic and Latin manuscripts and archaeological finds follows. A baroque refectory and the so-called gothic Abbey chapel are also parts of the exhibition. In the cloister  the whitened frescoes gradually unfold. These were whitened by the secular owners after the dissolution of the monastery during the Josephine reforms. The baroque frescoes were inspired by the legends of St. Procopius and the stories from the monastery’s history . They were discovered in 2007 on more than 1000 square metres of wall.

In the surrounding countryside there are minor pilgrimage stops emblazoned with legends and myths about St. Procopius. In the woods not far from the monastery there is also a wooden Way of the Cross in the so-called Devil's furrow. It is a prehistoric and medieval way, ploughed up according to the legend by St. Procopius with the  devil tamed and harnessed to a plough.