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Břevnov Monastery

Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Sokoljan assumed (based on copyright claims · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Břevnov, Prague, Czech Republic
Client / Owner
Othmar Daniel Zinke
Year
Completed 1740
Access
Public
Typology
Spiritual
Style
Baroque

Břevnov Monastery is a Benedictine archabbey in Prague's Břevnov district. Saint Adalbert, the second Bishop of Prague, founded it in 993 with the support of Duke Boleslaus II, and it was the first Benedictine male monastery in Bohemia. The Hussite Wars of the 1420s nearly destroyed it.

The article names the style as Baroque. The complex was built between 1708 and 1740 under Abbot Othmar Daniel Zinke, to plans by Christoph Dientzenhofer. His son Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer designed the interiors, including St. Margaret's church and the prelate's house. Petr Brandl painted the altarpieces, Cosmas Damian Asam made a ceiling fresco, and Egid Quirin Asam did the stucco.

The communist government expropriated the monastery in 1950, and the secret police used it until 1990. It was thoroughly repaired from 1991 to 1993, and Pope John Paul II visited in 1997, when it became an archabbey.

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