Velehradský klášter Monastery

Velehrad Monastery is a former Cistercian monastery on the eastern foothills of Chřiby, about five kilometers from Staré Město u Uherského Hradiště. It was founded in the early thirteenth century and is the oldest Cistercian monastery in Moravia. Together with the basilica, it is today the most significant pilgrimage site in the Czech lands, thanks to its connection with the Cyril and Methodius legacy. Every year the National Pilgrimage to Velehrad takes place here, attended by tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. Velehrad is also a place where the traditions of the East and West meet, and a symbol of Christian unity in Europe.

The monastery was founded by Moravian margrave Vladislav Jindřich at the initiative of Jindřích of Vítkovice from Prčice and Hradec and Robert, the bishop of Olomouc. It took its name from the nearby village of Veligrad, today's Staré Město. On the eleventh of November twelve hundred five, twelve monks from the Plaská monastery arrived here under the leadership of abbot Thezil. The building in late Romanesque style with the influence of early Gothic was consecrated on the twenty seventh of November twelve hundred twenty eight by bishop Robert in the presence of King Přemysl Otakar the First.

Early in the morning on the twelfth of January fourteen twenty one, the monastery was set on fire by Moravian Hussites. They destroyed the library built over two centuries and burned the abbot and four monks at the stake. The others managed to escape to Hradiště. Reconstruction only took place between fifteen eighty seven and fifteen ninety two. During the Thirty Years War, the monastery was damaged twice, in sixteen twenty three by the army of Bethlen Gábor, prince of Transylvania, and in sixteen twenty six by rebels from Valašsko.

It acquired its present appearance after the fire of sixteen eighty one, during the years sixteen eighty five to seventeen thirty five. The surrounding terrain rose by two meters over the centuries and the reconstruction had to account for that. The Renaissance tower above the crossing of the naves was replaced by a Baroque dome, two of the five Romanesque apses were removed, and many valuable elements were hidden by Baroque facades.

During the time of Josephine reforms, in seventeen eighty four, the monastery was dissolved. The church became a parish church and the buildings served as barracks and a hospital. From the middle of the nineteenth century, the importance of the place associated with Cyril and Methodius grew. In eighteen sixty three, for the thousandth anniversary of their arrival in Great Moravia, the celebration was attended by almost a hundred thousand people. Archbishop of Olomouc Antonín Cyril Stojan played a great role in the development of the pilgrimage site.

In eighteen ninety the monastery was acquired by the Jesuits and they established a college there and later a boys gymnasium. In nineteen hundred one the Slavic Hall was created, a hall decorated with vedute paintings of places memorable for the Slavic peoples. Christian intellectuals and theologians from all over Europe gathered in it. The Jesuits manage the monastery today and Stojan Gymnasium is housed in part of it.