Červený Kláštor (monastery)

Červený Kláštor (Red Monastery) is a medieval monastery located in Slovakia.^[1] It is located near the village of Červený Kláštor within the Pieniny Mountains, next to the Dunajec River.

Carthusian Period

Červený Kláštor

Červený Kláštor

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 Kokoš from Brezovica, 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 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. 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, 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, 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.^[2]

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.^[3]

References

Coordinates: 49°24′02″N 20°24′59″E / 49.40056°N 20.41639°E / 49.40056; 20.41639