The Monastery of St. Catherine ( cz, Kostel svaté Kateřiny) in

Olomouc Olomouc (, , ; german: Olmütz; pl, Ołomuniec ; la, Olomucium or ''Iuliomontium'') is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 99,000 inhabitants, and its larger urban zone has a population of about 384,000 inhabitants (2019). Located on th ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, was founded in 1287 for a community of

Dominican nuns The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

, who occupied it until 1782, when it passed over to the

Ursuline nuns The Ursulines, also known as the Order of Saint Ursula (post-nominals: OSU), is an enclosed religious order of consecrated women that branched off from the Angelines, also known as the Company of Saint Ursula, in 1572. Like the Angelines, they t ...

. The Ursuline Order remained in the monastery until 1951, when it was suppressed and converted to secular use under the

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

regime. It has been since used by the Regional Museum of

Historical aspects

The history of the two Orders of

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

s who inhabited the monastery was influenced by many important personalities from both sacred and secular circles. The beginnings of the monastery are connected with the patronage of King

Wenceslaus II of Bohemia Wenceslaus II Přemyslid ( cs, Václav II.; pl, Wacław II Czeski; 27 SeptemberK. Charvátová, ''Václav II. Král český a polský'', Prague 2007, p. 18. 1271 – 21 June 1305) was King of Bohemia (1278–1305), Duke of Cracow (1291–1 ...

, members of the royal family and noble families, the

pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

and the

Bishop of Olomouc The following is a list of diocesan bishops and archbishops of Olomouc. Not much is known about the beginnings of the Diocese of Olomouc. It was reestablished in 1063 and in 1777 it was elevated to an archdiocese. Bishops of Olomouc *''898 ...

Establishment

The monastery was established in the Polish province and is among the oldest monasteries of Dominican nuns in

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

and

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

. It was constructed for the nuns in the second half of the 13th century. First reports of its existence are from the year 1287, when Vojslava of Deblín gave the patronage rights of the church in Vážany to the monastery. It was built in an undeveloped area at foot of the Michalský Hill at the southern tip of the city, between the city wall and blocks of houses near the marketplace on the present-day Lower Square.

Monastery buildings

Kostel svate Kateriny v Olomouci - portal

The architectural, artistic, and historical aspects of the monastery buildings have been assessed by a number of researchers, but a scientific assessment of the convent complex has not yet been performed. There are not many research findings about its architectural history, but on the basis of the combination of pictorial and written sources, and materials from the preserved structure, it is possible to reconstruct the architectural development of the monastery. The inconspicuous monastery complex is now enclosed by blocks of houses in the southern part of the historic city centre and the monastery is one of the most important historic landmarks in Olomouc. The building is representative of various architectural styles and in the centre of the monastery is one of the oldest and most extraordinary Gothic buildings in Olomouc – the Monastery Church of St.

Catherine of Alexandria Catherine of Alexandria (also spelled Katherine); grc-gre, ἡ Ἁγία Αἰκατερίνη ἡ Μεγαλομάρτυς ; ar, سانت كاترين; la, Catharina Alexandrina). is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, wh ...

. Other parts of the monastery date back to the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

, which were built over during a reconstruction in the

Baroque style The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

. The monastery was significantly structurally modified for the last time in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

Development

It is supposed that the buildings of the complex developed gradually according to the needs of the monastic community and its financial resources . During the first decades of its existence, the Dominican nuns enjoyed a good economic situation. The high point of the monastery's history was in the 14th century. Although the majority of the monasteries of Dominican nuns disappeared after the

Hussite Wars The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution, were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, European monarchs loyal to the Cat ...

, the Dominican nuns in Olomouc survived without further calamities until the community was suppressed in 1782, under the reforms of Emperor

Joseph II Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 un ...

. It was claimed at the time that the monastery, among others, was disbanded because the nuns failed to care for the sick and promote education. During this period, its Baroque buildings were constructed.

Damage by fire

In the course of time, the monastery was damaged by several great fires, as well as the conflicts of the

Thirty Years War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an es ...

and a major fire in the city in 1709. The monastery was again reconstructed in the middle of the 18th century. After the Dominican community was disbanded, the buildings were made available for the use of the Ursulines. They had the building remodeled for their own needs, adding some buildings, particularly for classrooms and housing for their students. These structural transformations of the complex were finished before the middle of the 19th century by the church interior alterations. In 1905 a new school building was constructed in the south part of the old monastery complex. Occupancy by the Ursulines ended in 1951, under the

Czechoslovak Socialist Republic The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, ČSSR, formerly known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic or Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 to 29 March 1990, when it was renamed the Czechoslovak ...

when nearly all religious institutions in the country were closed.

Current status

At present, the monastery is being used for secular purposes. Its buildings form a complex of structures around four courts with a garden at the western wall. It is not a unified scheme of buildings and courts. As the monastery's composition was developed by the build-up and spread of the buildings, it developed asymmetrically. The most well-preserved building is the monastery church, in which the

Gothic Architecture Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It e ...

was preserved with many original details, especially the portals and vaults of the long presbytery. It has preserved the original segmentation of the interior by the window cornice, truncated support column with capitals, and windows with tracery. Well-preserved fragments of artistic and hand-done decoration remain on the walls of the monastery. Surveys have discovered previously unknown architectural details of the oldest structure. From the older interior decorating of the monastery, only fragments of the church interior, several

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

sculptures and pictures of saints,

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

furniture, and altar pieces have been preserved. The monastery complex is currently mostly unused while it awaits reconstruction and preservation.