Over 800 years of European history in medieval Bohemian monastery

By Christina Rietz Jul 5, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Tepla, Czech Republic - In order to find the monastery in Tepla, in the western Bohemian region of the Czech Republic, a traveller should stamp the image of the church well into his memory beforehand. For there are few signs showing the way. The church's two steeples do that.

And yet Premonstratsky Klaster Tepla, as the monastery is called in the Czech language, is a genuine monument covering over 800 years of European history. For many people, it is a day's excursion while taking a vacation at the well-known spas of Karlsbad, 44 kilometres away, and Marienbad, just 14 kilometres distant.

The half-hour walk from the village of Tepla to the monastery is comparable to a pilgrimage. There is scarcely a sound to be heard, as an old cycle path winds its way through fields to the monastery church, which towers above everything else.

But inside the 800-year-old monastery courtyard there is nothing left of the erstwhile splendour. From 1950 to 1978, the imposing building was occupied by the Czechoslovak army.

Afterwards it stood empty and steadily fell to ruin. Today, the renovation work is proceeding slowly forward, and now a few Premonstratensian monks are living here again.

It's better not to spend too much time in the courtyard, the female tour guide firmly suggests. Better to go inside, where a few parts of the building have already been renovated.

Inside, it's surprisingly cool. Paint is peeling away along the yellow-coloured walls of the metres-high hallways. There are frescoes on the ceilings, while five-metre-high picture frames stand empty along the walls.

The way leads through the square of the Stations of the Cross path in the direction of the monastery church. At the end of the 12th century, a certain Hroznata, not yet beatified, used to walk these paths. After the death of his wife, Hroznata and his son joined the Premonstratensian Order and founded the Tepla monastery.

When he was kidnapped in 1217 by robber-knights and taken to the town of Eger, he chose to go on a hunger strike rather than to change his testament to the disadvantage of the monastery, as the kidnappers were demanding. So he died a martyr's death.

Now his remains lie in the monastery church, St Mary's Annunciation. Church masses and concerts are held only in the summer season, which is a bit of a shame. For this church built in the Roman style with its ten side altars, choir stalls made of polished oak and two organs on each side of the nave would be a fitting place for the occasional high mass.

And even though the monastery was plundered - several times alone by Sweden during the 30 Years War - St Mary's Annunciation church still is radiant in its gold-leaf splendour.

German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe liked to visit Tepla during his stays at the Marienbad spa during the 1820s. The Premonstratensian Order order itself founded the spa in 1818.

The monastery's doctor, Johannes Nehr, was convinced of the healing powers of the springs bubbling up on the lands belonging to the monastery.

Out of gratitude, Goethe bequeathed to the monastery part of his collection of minerals which he had steadily built up on his visits to Bohemia. Today this collection lies in a glass showcase, next to a plaster bust of the famous visitor.

One passes by the spot on the way to the monastery's library, where 30,000 leather-bound books line the shelves of the reading room with its two galleries. Altogether, the library owns 100,000 books.

The library was built between 1902 and 1907, with a ceiling decorated by paintings and its shiny pinewood shelves holding theological writings, but also books of the natural sciences.

These books, as well as the ancient incunables, or moveable type book editions, and medieval codes can be used today by students and researchers. The monastery does not want this place to be merely a museum.