The Kladruby Monastery near Stříbro is preparing for reconstruction

Kladruby - A complete reconstruction of part of the old prelature and the old and new convent, along with the preparation of new visitor routes, awaits the Kladruby Monastery near Stříbro in the coming years. The national cultural monument has succeeded with a request for a grant for a project called Life in the Order. The EU will provide 100.34 million crowns, and another 17.7 million will be covered by the state budget. This year, selection procedures will be prepared, and the operations of the monument should not be affected by construction for now, but it must be completed by the end of 2020, said Petr Pavelec, director of the České Budějovice office of the National Heritage Institute to ČTK.

In addition to new visitor routes, spaces for cultural activities, educational programs, and an elevator will also be created. The monastery, which was visited by around 19,000 people last year, will thus open up more than before. Once a magnificent building, it had not been properly maintained since the order was dissolved in 1785, and its parts are now in very poor technical condition.

Visitors can look forward to two new routes starting in the 2021 season. "We will open one monastic route and one that will be called the Windischgrätz Library. The monastic route will map the life of the Benedictine orders, so it will include baroque cells, a hospital cell, the convent chapel, a baroque pharmacy, the novitiate, the paradise courtyard of the convent, and other exhibitions," described the castle keeper Milan Zoubek. Most of these places have not yet been accessible to visitors. The monument currently lacks a display of the daily life of monks. The second route will focus on the activities of the Windischgrätz family in Kladruby and military orders.

Most of the funds will go directly to construction work, while a much smaller portion will be allocated to restoration, potential copies of part of the furnishings, and the creation of exhibitions. Construction work includes repairs to floors, plaster, and the removal of partitions. These currently interrupt the ambitus corridor, which runs around the entire new convent. After the repairs, visitors will also be able to see there. The castle keeper additionally plans that the convent chapel could be freely accessible as a spiritual space.

The former Benedictine monastery was founded 900 years ago. Its dominant feature is the church redesigned by architect Jan Blažej Santini, and another significant building is the new convent by Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer. The planned reconstruction will not concern the church, but it will affect the operation of the monument.