Klášter Zlatá Koruna / Zlatá Koruna Monastery (South Bohemia) - Abbeys, Convents and Monasteries on Waymarking.com

Zlatá Koruna ("Golden Crown") monastery), one of the best-preserved Cistercian monasteries in the Czech Republic, is located on picturesque headland surrounded by meander of the Vltava River near Ceský Krumlov (South Bohemia).

King Premysl Otakar II founded the monastery in 1263 as an expression of gratitude to God, who enabled him to win the battle near Kressenbrunn over the stronger army of the Hungarian king. The king called the Cistercians from the most important Austrian abbey Heiligenkreuz to come to Zlatá Koruna. He added extensive grounds to the monastery. The name derives from the thorn from the Jesus Christ’s crown (Sancta Corona Spinea – the Holy Thorn Crown). Premysl Otakar II received the thorn from French King Louis IX and gave it to the monastery.

The monastery complex consists predominately of Gothic buildings with Baroque or Rococo additions. The architectural heart of the monastery is monumental three-nave Basilica of the Ascension of the Our Lady - the biggest sacral structurw in South Bohemia. The convent with a cross-corridor is attached to the church. On the northern side there is the Chapel of the Guardian Angels, from about 1370, the oldest preserved building of the monastery.

The abbey and monastey were dissolved by Emperor Joseph II in 1785. The outer parts of the monastery were transformed into a village in 1785, then into a fully independent township in 1848. Later a military bleaching works, then a silk factory, a pencil factory, a cardboard press, a drapery works, a machine works, and finally a foundry all occupied the halls of the monastery. Various sorts of economic problems brought the end to all industrial activity there in 1909. Finally, shortly after 1945, most of the renewed areas of the monastery were once again made accessible to the public serving as one of the main touristic magnets of region...