Červený Kláštor (; meaning ''Red Monastery'') is a medieval monastery located in
Slovakia
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
. It is located near the village of
Červený Kláštor within the
Pieniny Mountains, next to the
Dunajec River.
Carthusian Period
The monastery was founded in the early 14th century, during the
Hungarian Kingdom. Court documents from 1307 state that a man by the name of master Kokos from
Brezovica (Berzevice), founded six monasteries as a punishment for murder. In 1319 he donated 62 sectors of his village, Lechnice to the
Carthusian order. A wooden structure was built in 1330, which was later replaced by bricks and stones. The monastery gets the name "Red" from some brick, such as the cornices below the roofs and ribs of the vaults (unpaved in the chapter hall), and the red tiles that were used on the roofs.
The monastery suffered several quarrels with
Czorsztyn lords, and was occupied by
Hussites in 1431 and in 1433. It was adversely hit by the Battle of
Mohács in 1515, and in 1545 Czorsztyn Knights from
Niedzica Castle attacked the monastery, and the monks fled across the Dunajec River into
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
. The monastery was abolished during the Reformation in 1563, becoming a private residence for wealthy noblemen.
Post Carthusian period
In 1699, Ladislav Maťašovský, a bishop in
Nitra (Nyitra), purchased the monastery, and donated to the
Camaldolese order, who settled down it this area in 1711. In 1782 it was secularized as part of Emperor
Joseph II's campaign against monastic orders that in his view didn't pursue useful activities. The monastery's library was sold to
Budapest
Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
, and the church equipment to
Muszyna, Poland.
In 1820 the Emperor
Franz Joseph I donated the monastery to the newly founded
Greek-Catholic diocese of Prešov.
Czerwony Klasztor.jpg, Church and chapter house
Czerwony Klasztor 01.jpg, Court
Cervený Kláštor Monastery 9368.JPG, Chapter hall, vault ribs of brick
The monastery suffered a fire in 1907 and was heavily damaged during the Second World War, but after being rebuilt in 1956–66 it was opened again and serves as a museum.
Museum
Today, the monastery remains in the ownership of the state and is open to visitors as a history a museum.
The first museum exhibit covering topics such as the monastery's history, period monastic life and period monastic botany and pharmacy, was established in 1966 by the
East Slovak Museum in
Košice
Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...
, as a regional exhibit. This served as the culmination of early conservation and restoration efforts at the monastery that took place during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Following a further phase of conservation and restoration works on the monastery in the 1980s and early 1990s, an enlarged monastery museum was reopened in 1993. Between 1999 and 2007, the monastery was administered by the Ľubovňa Museum in
Stará Ľubovňa. Since 2008, the monastery has been administered by the Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic, which refurbished and expanded the existing exhibits.
References
External links
Official website of the Červený Kláštor Monastery Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cerveny Klastor
Carthusian monasteries in Slovakia
Camaldolese monasteries
14th-century churches in Slovakia
Christian monasteries established in the 1310s
Museums in Prešov Region
Pharmacy museums
Buildings and structures in Prešov Region
Tourist attractions in Prešov Region
1319 establishments in Europe