Zlatá Koruna Monastery is a former Cistercian abbey founded in 1263 by King Ottokar II of Bohemia, a national cultural monument since 1995 and administered by the National Heritage Institute.
Zlatá Koruna is a Cistercian monastery in South Bohemia. The monks from the Austrian Heiligenkreuz Abbey set out for Bohemia on 6 April 1263 and probably reached the site in the middle of the same month. The monastery was founded by Ottokar II of Bohemia.[1]
Foundation and name
The monastery was originally named after a relic, a thorn from the crown of Christ kept in a crystal case, as the Holy (Thorn) Crown. The name Zlatá Koruna has been in use since the 17th century. According to a legend, the king promised the foundation before the Battle of Kressenbrunn in 1260 against the Hungarian king Béla IV. There were also political reasons: the new monastery was meant to limit a possible expansion of the Vítkovci from nearby Český Krumlov.[1]
History
The founder gave the monastery extensive lands, and further estates were added by other donors, which allowed it to flourish in the 14th century. In 1420 the Hussites attacked the monastery and set the buildings on fire; the monks left it for 17 years. In the meantime the Rosenbergs seized the monastery estates, which were never returned, and for lack of funds the monastery church and the large convent could not be used until the 17th century.[1]
After the Thirty Years' War, during which the monastery suffered from troop quarterings and plundering, it ranked in the second half of the 17th century among the model monasteries of the Bohemian-Moravian Cistercian province and was repaired at great expense. A further period of prosperity came in the second half of the 18th century under the last abbot, Bohumír Bylanský, who founded a school for the children of subjects, had the interiors decorated in the Rococo style and redesigned the gardens. In 1785 monastic life ended with the dissolution decree of Joseph II.[1]
In 1787 the buildings were bought by the Schwarzenbergs, who leased them to industrial enterprises; a foundry and an engineering works in the cloister damaged the architecture in the second half of the 19th century. The factories were closed in 1909, and reconstruction of the buildings took place from 1938, also during the Second World War, under the architect Fidra.[1]
Ownership and protection
In 1947 the monastery was confiscated from the Schwarzenbergs under Act No. 143/1947 Coll. (known as Lex Schwarzenberg). From 1979 to 2000 it was administered by the State Research Library in České Budějovice, and it is now administered by the National Heritage Institute. In 1995 it was declared a national cultural monument.[1]